Ascendancy
by StevenQ
Summary: A gift from an old friend of Tommy's sets of a sequence of events in which everything spirals out of control for the Dino-Thunder Rangers.
1. Chapter 1

**Name:** Ascendancy  
**Chapter 1:** Of business and pleasure and sexy redheads.  
**Disclaimer:** I own nothing, I am nothing. I am one with the gestalt. Sue him  
**Archives:** Sure, just let me know where  
**Summary:** A friend of Tommy's comes visiting, but brings more than just old memories with him.  
**Shoutout:** To Jeannine, for writing a fic that stirred in me the desire to write again myself.

* * *

"A good friend is hard to find, hard to lose, and impossible to forget..."  
Unknown

* * *

"All right everyone, " Doctor Thomas Oliver, Phd, called out as the bell rang behind him, signalling the end of class. "Chapters four and five for tomorrow, and I will be asking people random questions." A few groans followed his announcement as the students began to filter out of the class, and he began to gather up his papers. 

"Dr. O?" Kira asked as she walked by the desk. "Don't forget to come by Hayley's for the show tonight."

He smiled at the Yellow Ranger, "Don't worry, I won't forget." She bobbed her head and headed out, joining Conner and Ethan as she left, and he looked back down at the papers he was gathering with a grin that he would never have let them see. He was proud of the three of them. Despite different personalities, different interests and a very tough job they'd more or less stumbled into by accident, they were beginning to become a real team, and it seemed to be spreading to their regular activities as well.

He was about to reach for his coat when a British tinged accent behind him startled him out of his thoughts. "Thomas Oliver, not forgetting something? Some things really have changed."

Tommy's head snapped round to the door, and his lips quirked in a smile as he took in the owner of the voice and walked over, extending his hand. "Well, if it isn't Eamon Keeper. You're one to talk about forgetting things, I haven't heard from you since..." His voice trailed off as he realised what he had been about to say, and a shadow flickered over his old friends expression.

"Since my parents died, " Eamon nodded. The shadow vanished from his eyes as the two friends stared at each other and Eamon ran a hand through his hair. "I know, and it was more my fault than yours Tom. I pushed everyone away after they were killed."

Tommy nodded. Eamon was one of the vanishingly few people who had never called him Tommy, only ever Tom or Thomas. However beyond that he didn't know what else to say. He'd buried a friend, someone as close as family not long before Eamon's parents had died, and he had gained plenty of experience at pushing people away, so he could hardly fault his friend for that.

They were both silent for a moment, before Tommy half shrugged and reached for his briefcase and coat. "So what brings you to Reefside? Not that I mind you being here, but I have to admit that after five years, I really wasn't expecting to see you."

"A bit of this and that," he responded. "Some business, some pleasure, and a sexy redhead." he grinned at that last part, and Tommy grinned with him. They both knew who he was referring to.

"Hayley?" Tommy asked, not really needing an answer.

"Hayley, the most gorgeous girl I never had a chance with," he lamented. "In fact, it was Hayley that suggested I come find you here. Seems she got it in her head that I was acting like an ass not having kept in touch for the last half a decade, and decided to tell me so in quite a few words when she emailed me last month. So naturally, when she heard I was coming to Reefside, she told me to come pick you up, find her, and be ready to build up a hefty tab."

Tommy chuckled as he lead his friend through the hallways of Reefside High. "That's Hayley for you, and It has been a while since the three of us just sat and talked. Besides, one of my students, Kira, is singing at Hayley's place tonight, and I promised i'd put in an appearance."

"You mean this student actually wants her old fogey of a teacher to come visit. She must be desperate for fans," he smirked at Tommy, and was rewarded with a hearty slap upside the head.

"You should talk about being an old fogey," he said easily. "I'm not the one who'se losing his hair at the ripe old age of twenty-eight." Eamon ran a hand through his long thin hair, and once more called down every curse he knew on family genetics.

"A low blow, and weren't you the one who always told me to fight fair when we were sparring," he asked as they walked out onto the carpark, and Tommy nodded with a grin, then looked at where his Jeep was parked. He glanced round the carpark, and gestured at a striking silver Thunderbird parked in the visitors lot.

"Yours I take it?"

"One of the advantages of being independantly wealthy is that you get to drive what you want to," Eamon shrugged, a little uncomfortably. Tommy glanced at him, mild surprise written on his face. When they'd been in college, he'd used his wealth and family name for every advantage he could wring from it. A combination of inherited wealth and a love for buildings and property that had kept Eamon's company growing for years now, he wasn't even slightly kidding when he referred to himself as wealthy.

'Still, Tommy thought. Money isn't everything, and it really doesn't solve all problems.

They had been an odd pair of roommates in college. Tommy, the former Ranger, who had abandoned the racing life after Trini Kwan had died in car crash, and Eamon, the heir to a small business fortune, who had embodied the phrase 'idle rich'. They'd ended up roommates, and had found that the two of them complemented each other well at the time as friends. Eamon had spent plenty of time listening to Tommy talk about his dreams, asking incisive and probing questions about how he was going to achieve them, the type of questions he had learned how to ask at his parents side as their heir. In return, Tommy had dragged him into the gym on a regular basis and taught him the beginnings of Karate.

"You want to lead the way, Tom old boy. I'm sort of new to Reefside and haven't figured out where everything is yet."

"Better idea, why don't you hop in the Jeep, and i'll drive you there. Give us a chance to do some catching up before Hayley gets ahold of you."

"Done," Eamon said, as he walked round to the passenger side of the black Jeep and tossed his shoulder bag into the back, "Besides, knowing Hayley, I think i'm going to need all the rest I can get."

Tommy chuckled. Eamon had unsuccesfully chased Hayley for most of their college time, eventually settling in a friendship that was only the slightest bit strained by Eamon's continuing crush on Hayley. She had responded by running him absolutely ragged while refusing to ever commit, and the lengths that the Englishman had gone to, to try and win her affection were a shared joke between the three of them.

"In that case, Dr. Oliver," Eamon said, with only the faintest hint of amusement in his voice. "Let's get going."

* * *

In Mesogog's fortress, the man who wasn't strode into his throne room, where he found Elsa examining the scanning equipment. Whatever she was doing, she was intent enough on it, that she didn't hear the door open, and he hissed slightly and quietly moved up behind her. 

"Found something interesting?" he asked, and had the satisfaction of seeing Elsa twitch enough for them both to know he had surprised her, and she turned round quickly.

"Lord Mesogog, my apologies," she said quickly, and he gestured back at the machine. "Master, I detected a new energy source entering Reefside earlier, and i've been trying to pinpoint it's location. It's similar to the Dino gems the Rangers have, but it doesn't seem to be active at all."

"Show me," he said as he turned and walked towards his throne. He sat down just as Elsa brought up the imaging system, to show a black Jeep leaving the grounds of the high school, and his eyes narrowed as he  
took in it's occupants. Dr. Oliver, Anton Mercer's onetime student and research partner. It wasn't surprising at all that he'd be there if there was a new power source in town. "Who is this human?"

Elsa turned and shook her head. "I don't know master," she admitted. "But it doesn't matter, the power source is somewhere in Oliver's car."

Mesogog snarled. "I don't want another power source to fall into Dr. Oliver's hands. Take the Tyranno Drones, Zeltrax and something from the Geno-randomiser if you must, but find that power source and bring  
it back."

"Yes master."

* * *

As they drove through the streets Tommy and Eamon chatted about various goings and comings in the last 5 years. After about a minute, Tommy shook his head. "So what's with the beard? I seem to remember you being a charter member of the ban the beard federation in school?" 

Eamon rubbed his chin for a second. "People change Tom, sometimes the easiest way to show a change is to change something physically."

Tommy was about to respond to that when a flash of familiar green light appeared before them and he slammed his foot down on the break as Elsa and Zeltrax appeared infront of them with one of their monsters, and the car was surrounded by Tyranno-drones.

Tommy thought furiously as he tried to figure out if there was any way to get through this without giving away his secret, but before he could say anything Zeltrax pointed his sword at him.

"Doctor Oliver, hand over the power source," he demanded.

Power Source? The Ranger thought to himself. What power source? he didn't respond immediately, but unbuckled himself and got out of the car. On the other side, Eamon did the same. Tommy glanced at him, and saw the confusion, and fear in his face, but he seemed to have himself in hand.

"I don't know what your talking about Zeltrax," he said as he walked round the front of the car, with Eamon joining him.

"You know this guy?" the Brit asked.

"He's Reefside's equivalent of a mob boss, don't worry, Reefside's got a very good set of police equivalents to deal with them," Tommy said as he got ready for the inevitable fight with the drones. He had no idea what Zeltrax was talking about, but that had never stopped the cyborg before. "You keep your training up?" he asked, almost nonchalantly.

Eamon swallowed hard. "Yes, more or less. I got my black belt late last year."

"Good," Tommy responded. "Remember, speed and violence count in a real fight."

"What about those police you were talking about?" he said nervously dropping into a loose fighting stance.

"They'll get here."

"Enough," Zeltrax boomed. "Give me the power source or be destroyed."

"No chance," Tommy responded, and the Tyranno Drones attacked.

One thing that most people never realised about a fight, a real multiple opponent fight, was that you had no concentration to spare while actually fighting. Unless you were fighting with someone who was a lot less skilled than you, you couldn't actually keep an eye on anything more than the people, or Drones, you were fighting. Fortunately for Tommy, he was a lot better than the Drones, and he made sure to keep himself near Eamon, and to make sure he wasn't getting in over his head.

As he kicked one of the Drones away from him, he heard a grunt from behind him, where Eamon had just performed a standard reverse punch, knocking one of the Drones down, but it was obvious from how he was holding his hand that he wasn't used to really fighting. Kata's taught you moves, and sparring taught you how to anticipate in a fight, but only actual fighting could teach you how to fight, when there was more on the line than just a trophy in a competion. Not to mention, the fact that fighting toughend you up physically, in a way that sparring never could.

As he began working his way towards Eamon, he suddenly heard the sound of motorbikes speeding round the corner. He grinned to himself, as three bikes came slashing round the corner, and fired their front lasers, knocking most of the Drones off their feet, and Tommy used the distraction to get to Eamon and help him up from where one of the Drones had knocked him down.

Eamon was bleeding from a cut to the side of his head, and his right hand was beginning to discolour slightly, but he looked otherwise fine, and his eyes were focussed on the brightly dressed figures that attacked Zeltrax and the others without a moments hesitation.

"Power Rangers," Eamon said while gulping in air, eyes wide, with a grin. "Ace."

"Yeah, now get down," Tommy insisted as he dragged the Brit down by the side of the Jeep, out of the line of fire. However, it quickly became obvious to him, that the Rangers were in trouble. The three of them could handle the monster, it didn't look like it was Mesogog's best effort, but when you added in Zeltrax and Elsa and the Drones, it became a different story. Even Trent arriving a few moments later wasn't enough to balance the odds, and Tommy swore under his breath at Mesogog's timing.

They need someone to distract Zeltrax or Elsa, he thought to himself. Tthat way Trent can take out the other, Ethan can take out the Drones, and Kira and Conner can give that monster a run for it's money. Even as he thought it, he realised that he was rapidly running out of options. The Rangers were already on the defensive, and it was only going to get worse unless he joined them. But to do that, he'd have to morph now, because there was no way that he would be able to convince Eamon to leave the area first.

Unwillingly his mind flashed back to his first Ranger days, when both Zordon and Jason had told him at length about the need to keep his identity secret, lest he endanger the people he knew and cared about. At the same time, when Astronema attacked, the Rangers didn't have a choice but to go public, and they'd been hailed as heroes. What's more, Zeltrax had made it obvious that Dr. Tommy Oliver and he knew each other, which meant Eamon would most likely be asking questions anyway.

He made up his mind, and apologised mentally to the memory of Zordon, then turned to Eamon. "Listen, you're a businessman and a company owner, so i'm going to assume you know about how to keep a secret?" he asked, and Eamon, looked at him, and then nodded sharply.

"Good," Tommy said, standing up, and stepping away to give himself room. "Then I hope, for our friendships sake, that you can keep this one."

Eamon's eyes narrowed instantly, but Tommy ignored it, and looked at the battle where his friends were slowly but surely being beaten back. Oh yeah, Tommy thought. I really hope you'll keep this one. Then the bracelet on his wrist changed into a Dino morpher, and he threw his hands forward.

"Dino Thunder, Power Up!"

tbc….


	2. Chapter 2

**Name:** Ascendancy  
**Chapter 2:** The Value of Secrets  
**Disclaimer:** I own nothing, I am nothing. I am one with the gestalt. Sue him  
**Archiving:** It's yours if you want it, just let me know where it's posted.  
**Summary:** Tommy and Hayley discuss the value of secrets, as the Rangers ponder the danger that follows them even in their normal lives  
**Shoutout:** To Jeannine, for writing a fic that stirred in me the desire to write again myself.

* * *

Secrets are things we give to others to keep for us.  
- Elbert Hubbard

* * *

Tommy glanced at his friends face, seeing the surprise and shock in it, and then turned away. He had other things to worry about as he charged through a group of Tyranno-Drones to engage Zeltrax. His taking on Zeltrax and Elsa, was tough, but it did free Ethan and Kira up to help deal with the monster, and thankfully, they seemed to be able to take the fight to him. 

After a few minutes, they combined their energy with the shield of Triumph to allow Conner to go to Triassic mode, and the shield, Conner and the monster vanished. Tommy knew the effect was one that allowed Conner to drag an opponent into another dimension where his powers were even more enhanced. Kira and Ethan, immediately turned and engaged the Tyranno Drones and Elsa, leaving him free to deal with Zeltrax.

"You know," he said as he crossed his staff with Zeltrax's sword. "I really don't know what you're talking about. The only power sources I've got is the one on my wrist, and you're not getting that."

"Deceptions don't suit you Doctor Oliver," Zeltrax snarled swinging high. Tommy saw the blow coming and deflected it, swinging his staff round hard into Zeltrax's stomach and knocking him to the ground. With a growl, Zeltrax raised his weapon high and vanished in a flash of green light.

Tommy turned round, to find Elsa and the drones doing the same thing, and he took a deep breath as Kira and Ethan joined him.

"Dr. O., don't mean to complain about the save, but isn't that a civilian?" Ethan asked, inclining his head towards the jeep.

"Not now Ethan," he said as there was another flash of light, and Conner appeared, in his Triassic form, swinging into a ready stance as the monster fell to the ground behind him, and exploded.

* * *

Mesogog growled as he saw the results, and Elsa visibly shrunk back at his gaze. "Once again you two have failed me," he said, almost mildly, and Elsa immediately stepped towards the arcane machinery. 

"Master, if we make it grow, it may still defeat the Rangers," she begun, but Mesogog waved her off.

"No, I think we need to consider, new strategies." Without looking back, he stood and strode from the room, as Elsa and Zeltrax exchanged worried looks.

* * *

With the monster defeated, and apparently not coming back super-sized for a change, Tommy turned to the others. "I'm going to have to make some explanations, but I don't want to try and explain the three of you if I can avoid it. So take off, and I'll see you later." 

"Right," Conner replied, and the three of them climbed back on the raptor-cycles and kicked them into gear. As soon as they were out of sight, they turned the bikes towards the nearest exit to the forest, and from their back to the base through the invisio-portal. It didn't take them long to stow the bikes, and power down themselves.

"Wonder what Doctor O. will tell that guy." Conner remarked as the three of them wandered back upstairs.

"Kinda makes you wish you could be a fly on the wall doesn't it?" Ethan said with a smirk. Besides him Kira shook her head.

"Not really, I mean didn't Doctor O. say that we had to keep our identities a secret?"

"Yeah," Conner admitted. "But haven't you wanted to let people, friends and family and stuff know about this?" he looked at his two friends. "Every time Eric visits, I've got to stop myself from dragging him down here and showing him all the cool stuff."

Kira smiled. "Yeah, My mom keeps asking me where I'm running off to. But I don't know if she'd be happier knowing that I was out fighting monsters, or just not knowing." Conner inclined his head at her point, and Ethan just shrugged.

"Maybe, but if we let people know, then we put them at risk, we can't afford that." Conner said after a moment, "I mean, we're supposed to protect people, not endanger them even more."

"Carefull Conner," Kira said, with a smile she was very careful to show neither of them. "You sounded like a responsible leader there for a second."

"But aren't they already in danger," Ethan said, ignoring Kira's comment. "I mean, every time Zeltrax attacks the school, or like the thing with Krista others are in danger. Zeltrax would never have shown up at the school a few weeks back if we hadn't been students there."

They got into Conner's car, and he threw it into gear as they headed down the road. "But that's going to be true no matter what we're doing. If we quit school tomorrow, then Mesogog's freaks would probably show up at our houses or jobs. We can't avoid that part of it."

He thought for a moment longer, then shrugged. "At the end of the day, all we can do is try to keep our secret to put as few extra people in danger, and make sure that we protect everyone who is. That's what we do."

* * *

Tommy powered down, after the Rangers had left, turned, and walked back to the car slowly, as Eamon got up from his crouch, and dusted his hands on his jeans, before gingerly touching the cut on his forehead. 

"So," he said. "You want to talk about this?" he indicated the now empty stretch of road, which now had scorchmarks on it from the explosion.

"Not yet," Tommy replied. "Later, okay?"

The silence that stretched out was palatable, until Eamon finally shrugged. "All right, you're my friend, and that means that I owe you the chance to explain this on your own terms."

"Thanks, now before we go, let me get something on that cut." Tommy said, grabbing the emergency medical kit, and some plasters. Eamon didn't say a word as Tommy put on the plasters and put the kit away.

The ride to Hayley's was quiet and tense. Tommy had no idea what to say yet, and Eamon didn't seem inclined to chat about inconsequential things, and so they travelled with only the cars engine noises for company. Tommy used the time to think. There was no way that he could hide his involvement from Eamon, but how much to tell him. He wondered if the Brit would accept operational security as a reason not to be told anything, and somehow he doubted it.

Having gone round in the mental circle several times, he put it out of his thoughts as he pulled into Cyberspace. He needed to talk to his partner in crime-fighting, and get Hayley's perspective. She knew Eamon as well as he did, and he had often found her non-ranger perspective to be usefull. What's more, she was the only one he could talk to about this. Conner, Kira, Ethan and Trent, for all that he liked and respected them, were teenagers. It meant that they sometimes lacked the kind of perspective that

could only be gained with age and experience. What's more, he was their teacher in school, and their mentor as Rangers, which meant they'd filter their responses through those biases without ever intending to.

Hayley was different in that respect. She had seen him at his best, and his worst. She had coached him through more than a few of his tests in college, and she'd been there when he'd come unglued after Trini's funeral. When too much alcohol, and too many memories he didn't want to face had torn him apart at the seams. She had sat with him, and held him while he had poured his heart out. About his childhood, about Kimberly and about Trini. It was also the night she had admitted to him that she knew he was a Ranger, and

afterwards, she had kept his secrets, and his confidences, and they had been friends ever since. He didn't keep any secrets from her, and was fairly sure she didn't keep any from him, and her opinions were invaluable to him.

They got out, Eamon slinging his bag over his shoulder, and looking at the place with interest. He saw the plaque with the name and snorted. "Hayley running a place called Cyberspace. I wish I could say I was surprised at that." The tone in his voice left little doubt with Tommy as to what he had been surprised at.

"Look Eamon, do me a favor," Tommy said, as they walked in the door. "Find us some seats, and order some drinks. I need to talk to Hayley for a second, and I'll be right back." Eamon said nothing, but nodded and went for one of the empty tables, getting the attention of Trent as he did it to order some drinks.

"Hey Tommy," Hayley smiled as she poured a drink behind the counter. "Looks like Eamon found you."

"Yeah, he did," Tommy answered distractedly, and Hayley archer her eyebrows at him. "Is there somewhere private we can talk?"

"Sure," she said, turning to one of the other people behind the bar. "Annie, can you take the bar for a few minutes?" The girl nodded, and Hayley led Tommy to the door of her office at Cyberspace. It wasn't a huge office, as Hayley had decided she wanted more floor-space, rather than a big office, but there was enough room for the computer terminal, a desk, a few cupboard and a semi comfortable set of chairs. She led Tommy in and then closed the door behind them and latched it. She didn't know what was going on, but the look in his eyes suggested he wanted privacy, and if the door wasn't thick enough to guarantee it, the latch at least gave the impression of it.

"So?" she asked, as she sat down and gestured for Tommy to do the same. He didn't, pacing back and forth in the small office for a few seconds, before looking at Hayley with a troubled expression on his face.

"He saw me morph," he finally said, and saw the surprise on her face. "The others were in trouble, getting hammered, and they needed me in the mix. I couldn't drag him away from there and make it back, so I had to morph in front of him."

She didn't say anything for a few seconds, as Tommy stood in front of her, drywashing his hands in a nervous gesture she had seen him use only twice before. "Are you okay with that?" she finally asked, making a guess at where his thoughts were going.

"Hayley, I don't know." He wondered vaguely if he looked as lost as he felt. "One thing Zordon always told us was to keep it a secret. It was the cardinal rule of the Rangers that we needed to be anonymous." She mentally scored a point for her, for having guessed right, and smiled slightly.

"Tommy, you've told me quite a bit about Zordon over the years, and he didn't strike me as the kind of person who would want to see Rangers get hurt," she paused for a moment, so brief, Tommy though he imagined it. "Or die, just to keep the secret."

His eyes looked at her, imploringly. "What if I was wrong? If they could have handled it, and I blew the secret for nothing? For that matter, where was Trent."

He saw her bite her lip, "That's my fault. When I first sent Ethan, Conner and Kira out, I thought they could handle it with you nearby. So I kept Trent here in case it was a diversion."

Shrugging a bit uncomfortably he said, "I can understand why you did. You didn't have any way of knowing I wasn't in a position to Morph. but maybe it could have been avoided."

"What if you were right, though, about them being in serious trouble?" she countered. "What did your instincts say. Not your head, now that you've had a chance to think about it, but when you were right there, and then." She knew she had to get him to stop thinking, and remember how he felt, because Tommy Oliver had a guilt complex big enough for three people. If he over thought the situation, he'd find some way to blame himself for not having found a way, even if there hadn't been a way to find.

Tommy closed his eyes, and tried to put himself back at the fight objectively. Tried to remember how he felt, what his instincts were telling him, even as he sat crouched by the jeep with Eamon. He was surprised

How quickly the answer came to him. "They were in trouble, and I wasn't sure they could handle it by themselves. Not without Trent."

She stood up and put a hand Tommy's shoulder, and as he looked at her, he saw the trust, and compassion in her eyes. "Then you did good Tommy. You did what had to be done, and as long as Eamon will keep the secret, no harm's been done."

He let out an explosive sigh, and nodded. Hayley had always been able to do that for him, be a sounding board, and give him an honest opinion no matter what the circumstances, and somehow, allow him to think more clearly about things than he could have managed by himself. He marveled, not for the first time, that he'd been able to find a friend like her. She was a friend in the truest sense of the word, having stood by him for years, and he knew that nothing he could ever do would repay her for that.

"Hayley," he finally said. "I don't know what I'd do without you."

She smirked, "You'd have to have taken computer programming classes rather than paleontology." He chuckled at that, and she got up, and headed for the door. As she unlatched it, she turned, a thoughtful look on her face. "You know, once Kira's done her set, and we close up, why don't the two of you stay for a while, we'll open up some drinks and clear the air."

"He doesn't know about you yet," Tommy said, shaking his head. "I'm not sure it's a good idea to let him know."

"It might be. I mean, hopefully he'll keep your secret, but if he won't keep it just for you, maybe he'll keep it for the both of us."

Tommy mulled that for a few seconds then shrugged. "It probably won't hurt, and he's smart enough to try and start putting the pieces together by himself now anyway."

"In that case, let's get this evening going."

tbc...


	3. Chapter 3

Name: Ascendancy  
**Chapter 3:** A Reunion of sorts  
**Disclaimer:** I own nothing, I am nothing. I am one with the gestalt. Sue him  
**Archiving:** It's yours if you want it, just let me know where it's posted.  
**Summary:** Tommy and Hayley discuss the value of secrets, as the Rangers ponder the danger that follows them even in their normal lives  
**Shoutout:** To Jeannine, for writing a fic that stirred in me the desire to write again myself.

* * *

Just because everything is different doesn't mean anything has changed.  
-Irene Peter

* * *

Sitting at the table, Eamon barely noticed the café around him. He didn't react when his drink was brought, just passing some bills and ignoring the world around him as his mind whirled. The fact that Tom had gone straight to talk to Hayley was bothering him. Admittedly, he was probably reading too much into the situation, but what if Hayley was part of Tom being a Power Ranger.

He frowned. Now that he'd had his face rubbed into it, he could imagine Tom as a Ranger without too much difficulty. Hayley however, didn't strike him as having the physical prowess needed to be a Ranger. Yeah, he snorted to himself. Like I know everything that's required to be a Power Ranger.

Still, he doubted it. Hayley was possibly the smartest person he'd ever personally met, and yet, for no apparent reason, she had dropped the various corporations that were bidding for her services even before she graduated, and moved to a nowhere like Reefside. Of course, maybe it wasn't without reason.

He had seen news-reports on the Rangers from time to time, and one thing that had always struck him was the sheer logistical support required to maintain gigantic robots. The thought struck him that if you wanted to maintain things of that size, you'd need the best and smartest tech-girl you could find. He smiled into his drink, there was more to it than that he was sure, but it did fit the facts.

He leant back and took another sip of his drink, surprised only slightly as he realised it was one of his favorite drinks, when three teenagers walked in. Maybe it was the recent fight, or the fact that he was looking at things with a new set of eyes, but something struck him as immediately odd about then. He focussed on them, he'd seen them in school when he went to see Tom. The girl was the one who had invited his Tom to the show tonight, and she was wearing a lot of yellow. And her friends were wearing predominantly red and blue.

He shook his head, wondering not for the first time today, how blind he could have been, even as Tom came out of the backroom with Hayley and joined him at the table.

The night proceeded fairly peacefull. Eamon kept his conversation on light topics, and was properly appreciative of Kira's performance, thought Tommy noticed that he was glancing from time to time, his gaze shifting between Kira, and where Conner and Ethan sat. It unnerved the Black Ranger because it mean that his friend was considering possibilities.

However he had become progressivly quiter as the evening wore on, and by the time Hayley was shooing the last of the people out the door, he had been silent for almost half an hour. He was just staring into the wall, and seemed to be ignoring the world around them.

Tommy watched as Hayley closed up the front doors, and sent the last of her staff home, and dropped the blinds on the door after locking it. With a conspiratorial grin she went to the backroom and came back with a crate containing half a dozen small beer bottles, and dropped it on the table between them. They each reached for one and Hayley held out the tip of her bottle to the others.

"So what are we drinking to?" she asked, as they clinked bottles.

"How about the three of us, together again?" Eamon suggested, and Tommy nodded at that. He took a sip from the bottle and made himself comfortable in the oversized chair he'd pulled over to the couch. It was obviously going to be a long night, so he was settling in.

"So," Eamon said after a few moments. "Where do you guys want to start?"

Tommy sighed. "That's not exactly an easy question."

"All right, then how about I tell you that it doesn't change anything, and that I'm not going to tell," Eamon said as he drunk another sip from his beer.

"Good place to start," Hayley said. "Nice to know some things have changed since we college." There was the slightest hint of chill in her otherwise warm voice, and neither Tommy nor Eamon missed it.

Eamon put the bottle down on the table a lot harder than necessary and pushed himself out of his chair. He walked over to the window, and looked out into the rapidly darkening sky. His voice was tight with anger when he spoke.

"I guess I deserved that, especially after not talking to you more than once in the last half a decade. I mean, how could I expect you to know how I've changed, since I was the one that cut off the communications."

He heard someone get up, and a moment later Hayley put a hand on his arm, and turned him around. "Sorry," she said. "I didn't mean it that way."

"Yes you did," he replied. "And no more than fair I guess." He had after all, not shown either of them a side of him that could remotely been trusted. In school he'd abused his families power and privilege at every opportunity to get an easy ride through the school, and when his parents had died in Astronema's attack on earth, he'd dropped out and not spoken to either of them in half a decade. Despite that, the worlds still hurt.

Hayley looked at him, then her eyes narrowed. "You done feeling sorry for yourself?"

"Excuse me?" he asked, with surprise written on his face.

Hayley snorted elegantly, and raised her head to him, eyes boring into the "You heard me. I said I was sorry, and I mean it, now are you going to accept my apology or not?"

She held his gaze for a few seconds before he raised his hands in surrender. "Sheesh, Hayley, you could let me have my pity-party you know."

Behind them Tommy chuckled, and Hayley joined in, even as Eamon waved a mock-threatening fist at the two of them. Hayley had always been able to cut straight through his tantrums, as infrequent as they'd become over the years. She had an amazing gift for knowing when someone was really upset, and when they were just angry without a

good reason. He shook his head, and wandered back to the chair, and sat down in it.

"Seriously though," Tommy said with a smile, as he watched the two of them. He knew that Hayley had never taken Eamon's advances seriously, as he'd had a reputation for being a playboy in high school, and there had been persistent rumor that he was using his money as a lure. Not uncommon in college, but it had made Hayley extremely uninterested in listening to him.

Tommy wondered how much he'd really changed in the intervening years. He had seemed calmer, more centered when they had met up at the school, but Tommy also knew first hand how easy it was to be taken in by a calm demeanor. Trent had fooled them all at first.

Eventually Eamon sighed. "Seriously, I don't know where to start asking questions. I honestly don't, so I guess I'm just going to accept whatever you want to tell me, and I'll ask questions if they occur to me."

Tommy nodded at that. "Works for me. How long are you in town for?"

"Just a day or two now," he said, and both Hayley and Tommy narrowed their eyes. There was something in Eamon's voice that suggested that it hadn't been his original plan

"What do you mean, now?"

Eamon reached over for his bag, and removed a plain brown envelope.He opened it up, and pulled out a letter and a small box.

"About four weeks ago, I got this. It was sent from Reefside, and the letter as you can see is terse and to the point. Make sure this gets into the hands of the Rangers," he read from the letter, before handing it to Tommy.

"I subjected it to every type of non-invasive test I could, but got nothing. So, here I am, and since you're a Ranger, that means I don't have to find one anymore. Which means I can get this thing away from me."

Tommy listened as he looked at the letter. It was typed up, with no visible markings or names to indicate who might have sent it, or why. Eamon then opened the box, that looked like a small jewelry case with red velvet lining, and Tommy sucked in his breath as he saw what was inside.

It was maybe twice the size of one of the Dino-gems, and rather than having a specific color, it looked almost transparent, with a dark, smokey looking center to it. The black Ranger reached out to it, hesitating only slightly. "Can I?"

"Sure," Eamon nodded, passing the box to him.

Tommy held the box in one hand, and gently took hold of the gem, holding it close to his face. As he looked at it, the shadows on the inside of the gem seemed to swirl into a pattern, but before Tommy could identify it, something slammed into him, as a shockwave travelled out from the crystal, knocking him clear off his chair and across the room.

He smashed into the wall behind him, and as he sank into darkness, he could have sworn he heard someone yelling his name.

* * *

"What the hell," Tommy exclaimed as he blinked. His head didn't hurt, and that was surprising given that he must have hit the back wall fairly hard. He was used to strange things happening, but this was strange, even for him. He wasn't in Cyberspace anymore, but he couldn't be standing where he thought he was. He blinked a few more times, as he looked around the old command center. The one which he'd trashed on his first visit and which had later been destroyed, and his eyes widened as he saw Alpha talking to Zordon.

"Zordon, you're alive," he breathed, but neither figure seemed to hear him. He tried again, but no matter how hard he shouted, neither Alpha, nor his old mentor seemed to be able to hear him. He saw Goldar and Rito walk in, and say something, and he suddenly understood when he was. The two had just placed a bomb under the command center, while he and the others were seeing off the Alien Rangers, and the explosion would destroy the command center. They'd find the Zeo crystal in the wreckage, and Zordon would give himself, Rocky, Adam, Kat and Tanya the Zeonisers and the powers that went with it.

But something was wrong. Tanya had been here when the crystal had been stolen, and he didn't see her. What's more, he realised with something akin to total shock, the crystal itself wasn't where he had expected it to be. There was something very wrong with this scene beyond the obvious missing team-member and Zeo Crystal, but he couldn't put his finger to it. What he did know though, was that no matter what, he had to try and stop Goldar and Rito.

He knew that everything would be more or less all right, that Alpha and Zordon would survive, but he still leapt at Goldar, his kick aiming to connect with the gold armored aliens head. However Goldar was as insubstantial as Zordon and Alpha had been, and he crashed to the ground. He quickly got up, and watched as Goldar drew his sword and savagely attacked Alpha, smashing him into wreckage.

He watched helplessly, as one of his oldest friends was destroyed, before Goldar and Rito vanished, leaving a silent command center behind. He knew that time was ticking away for the command center. There was nothing he could do, and he hung his head, tears burning in his eyes. There had only been one time that Goldar and Rito had entered the command center, which meant that was going to happen next was inevitable.

He'd had a long conversation with Andros after the mission to the moon. Not just to find out how all the Red Rangers had recovered their powers, but also to talk to him about Zordon. Those memories still left him raw, as Andros had tried to explain, and apologise, for what he'd done. It had been, Tommy reflected, the hardest choice he could imagine making. Killing his teacher, or watching as the united alliance of evil conquered the galaxy.

He'd often wondered what he'd have done in Andros' place, if he would have been strong enough to kill Zordon and it was a question he'd never found and answer for. Now, it would seem that he was back before that happened, and he couldn't even communicate with him. Couldn't say the words he'd never said while there had been time. Thank you. You've been like a father to me, and you gave me purpose, and pride, and taught me that being a hero was more than just the powers.

With an inarticulate cry, he fell to the ground, when he heard someone call his name again.

"Tommy," Hayley's voice suddenly sounded, and he looked around, his breathing fast and heavy. He was back in Hayley's bar, Eamon and Hayley looking at him with a worried look, even as his heart hammered in his chest.

"Hayley?" he asked, his breath coming in slow ragged gulps.

"I'm here Tommy. What happened."

"I don't," he started, then wiped an arm across his eyes. "I saw the command center, before it was destroyed."

He saw Hayley and Eamon glance at each other as they helped him up.

"Tom," Eamon said hesitantly. "You literally fell down three seconds ago. How is that possible."

"I don't know, but what I saw there was something wrong with it," he said as he sat back down on the chair. His hands were shaking and he balled his hands into fists to try and stop it. It had seemed so real. Heart still pounding in his chest, he took several deep breaths, trying to calm it.

"What was wrong?" Hayley asked softly. She had gone to the bar and grabbed a bottle of water and passed it to him, and he gratefully took a drink.

"The Zeo crystal, it wasn't there. Neither was Tanya, but it doesn't make any sense. Goldar and Rito never invaded the command center before or after that, so it had to have been when they planted the implosion device. "

Hayley looked at him. she knew the basics of the story, but had no idea what to make of these alternate events. "Tommy, I don't mean to be the skeptic, but is it possible that when you hit the back wall, it knocked you out for a second.

"You're saying I imagined it," he asked. There was no heat in the question, as he trusted Hayley's opinion. As he put down the bottle of water, he realised that his head hurt, just as if he had smashed into the wall

She bit her lip, then shrugged. "I'm saying it's possible. You hit that back wall, awfully hard."

"It felt so real. Like, I was actually there, and it was happening, just not the way it was supposed to happen."

"What do you think it means?" she asked, concern in her expression.

Tommy eyed the grey smokey gem in his hand and his eyes were hard as ice. "I don't know. But I'm going to find out."

Tbc...


	4. Chapter 4

**Name:** Ascendancy  
**Chapter 4:** Good nights and Goodbyes  
**Disclaimer:** I own nothing, I am nothing. I am one with the gestalt.Sue him  
**Archiving:** It's yours if you want it, just let me know where it's posted.  
**Summary:** Tommy dreams, while Hayley says goodbye to Eamon.  
**Shoutout:** To Jeannine, for writing a fic that stirred in me the desire to write again myself.

* * *

A dream has power to poison sleep  
- Percy Bysshe Shelley

* * *

They had agreed to call it a night very shortly after Tommy had put the gem back in its box. Given that it was Thursday, and that Kira would be back for her second regular weekly performance the next day, Hayley hadn't wanted to make it all too late, and most of the friendly feel to the evening had vanished in the gems effect. She had extorted a promise from Tommy that he would wait till she could get there the next day before trying to examine the gem. 

Tommy had said his goodbyes, staying only just long enough to agree to see Eamon off the next day, before he took off. It wasn't until he was driving off that Eamon suddenly remembered that he hadn't brought his car with him, and that it was still standing in the school parking lot. He turned to Hayley, who was locking up, having put the drinks back in the locked cupboard at the back of the cafe, and cleared his throat.

"Hayley?" he asked hesitantly. "Tom seems to have forgotten that he drove me here from the school. My car's still there."

She shook her head in bemusement. "Didn't you remember?" she asked, not bothering to point out that Tommy was supposed to be the only one of the three with a bad memory.

"Uhm, no?" he offered. "I blame the beer, and weird gemstones, and getting attacked by weird dinosaur thug things.."

She chuckled, gesturing to a car standing off to the side of the building. "In that case, hop in, and we'll go and pick up your car."

He gave her a grateful look as they walked over to the vehicle. "Thank you, I owe you one."

"Don't you forget it."

The drive was a short one, Reefside not being a major metropolis, and before long they were in the school parking lot and he hopped out. He hesitated for a second, and then walked over to the other side of the car, where Hayley was just standing up.

"You know, I really am sorry," he said without preamble, and she waved it away.

"Look, you had no way of knowing that the gem would react that way."

"Not that," he said with only a slight wince. "School, how I treated you there."

Hayley opened her mouth to say something, and then closed it, looking mildly uncomfortable for a second or two. "Oh, that." The uncharacteristically blunt comment had caught her by surprise.

"Yeah. Look Hayley, I know I was an absolute idiot, and a jerk back then, and a lot of things have changed in the last five years or so." Despite the humor with which he and Tommy had always portrayed his pursuit of Hayley, he really hadn't been a very nice guy about it to Hayley. It was to her credit that she hadn't simply told Tommy the truth, which might very well have cost Eamon his friendship with the man. "Some things haven't changed though."

She was guarded, both in the way she was standing, and in what she was saying. Almost unwilling to say much for concern about being caught out. "Like what?"

He took a chance, reaching out to take one of her hands in his. She tensed up, but didn't pull away. "Like how I feel about you."

"Eamon," she said, and there was such rawness in her voice that he instantly let her hand go.

He had always thought he'd burned his bridges, but he hadn't thought he'd burned them that badly. "I shouldn't have said anything," he said softly, and started to step back, when she reached out a hand and touched his shoulder ever so slightly. He stopped immediately.

"It's not that," she finally admitted. "I never thought you were a bad guy in college. It's just that you weren't looking to date me, you were looking for another notch on your bedpost." It came out without heat, and some part of him was glad that she had said it. It meant that maybe it wasn't too late to make amends.

"I haven't been that person for a long time Hayley. I'd like a chance to prove that to you."

She chewed her lip ever so slightly. "All right, how about next time you come through town, I'll give you that chance." She smiled as his eyes lit up; at something that wasn't even a promise of something. Just a promise of a chance of something.

"So, Tom is seeing me off tomorrow afternoon. You going to come with him?" he asked, changing the subject to something less emotionally charged.

She shook her head. "Sorry, but I've got the cafe open all day, and I've got another performance to prepare for tomorrow evening."

"Fair enough," he said. He then leant forward and gave her a hug, and to his surprise she hugged him back. It really had been to long since he had seen Hayley, he mused, and he was luckier than he deserved to have her as a friend. They parted, though they didn't part totally, and he found himself, with his faces inches from hers, their eyes locked together. He wasn't sure what he saw in them, and he knew  
instantly that he was playing with fire.

"Hayley," he murmured softly, looking, listening for any sign of what she wanted.

Her response was a whisper. "Prove that you've changed." He understood the message in her voice, even though he was close enough for her warm breath on his face to make something deep within him  
shiver with possibilities. He let go of her, and stepped back, and she dropped her own arms to her side.

He grabbed his bag, going over to his car, unlocking it and tossing it in, then turned around to what he considered to be one of the most beautiful women he'd ever seen. "I'll be back in a week or so. I've got some business in Los Angeles, but after that I've got nothing planned for a while." He left the sentence open, letting her make the next move if she wanted to.

"See you in a week."

Five little words, but he wanted to grin like a loon as he nodded his head and got in his car, even as Hayley walked back to hers. As he drove of the school lot, he thanked fate for giving him a second chance.

* * *

Tommy meanwhile, drove straight home, and after making himself a quick drink, took the box containing the gem down to the lair, the lair, as Conner had dubbed it, and put it on the desk. He opened the box, the gem looking like it had when he had first seen it, and turned and straddled a chair. 

Sitting down comfortably, his arms crossed on the back of the chair, and his chin resting on his arms, he stared at the gem, trying to recall the vision he'd had earlier. Trying to understand it, and trying to find meaning in it.

He wasn't sure how long he sat there, but eventually he sighed. Just sitting there wasn't doing anything, and he didn't have the technical know-how to examine the gem properly. At least, not without reading Hayley's instruction manuals that she'd written when she put the computer system together. He knew he wasn't stupid, but aside from the actual use of technology, he'd never been very good with it. One of the reasons he'd gone into paleontology, he supposed, was that he could actually get his hands dirty doing it.

He made his way upstairs, then across the house to his bedroom and got ready for sleep. He'd never had a fascination for dinosaurs until he'd become a Ranger, and gained control of the Dragonzord. The fact that the original Zords were based on dinosaurs had interested him, and it had slowly developed into something he enjoyed reading about until he finally decided that if he was going to get a PhD, it might as well be in something he enjoyed.

He smiled at the thought, even as he fell asleep.

He woke to find himself standing on a building near the edge of what he recognized as Angel Grove. As he looked around, he sighed to himself. "This has got to be a dream."

Even as he said it, something caught his eye. He saw the Dragonzord, climbing out of the water, and heading for the city, and he shuddered as the titanic machine began to demolish the first buildings it came across. Just like his vision in Cyberspace, he seemed to know innately when he was, and where, and once again, an indefinable sense of wrongness filled him as he watched as in the distance the Rangers came to fight the Dragonzord.

Surprise smashed through him as he understood what was wrong with this scene. There were only four Zords coming to fight the Dragonzord. He saw the Sabretooth Tiger, the Triceratops, the Mastodon and the Pterodactyl, but he didn't see Tyrannosaurus anywhere. He looked around frantically, for Jason's Zord, but all he saw was the four others. They slammed into the Dragonzord, obviously intent on battle, but without the Tyrannosaurus, and thus without the Megazord, they stood no chance against their enemy, and the Dragonzord soon sent them running in defeat.

As he heard a hideous laughter of victory, a laugh made in his voice, echoing through the air, he snapped upright in bed, covered in sweat, and with his breathing ragged. He wiped an arm across his face to clear the sweat, and then froze, as a hand reached up to his shoulder.

"Tommy?" a voice asked, and his heart seemed to double it's already frantic pace. It couldn't be, but as he turned his head, he saw Kimberly Hart, the one woman he'd truly loved lying in the bed beside him. Her beautiful brown eyes concerned, as she sat up, holding the cover with her other hand.

"Kim?" he asked, confused. "This isn't possible."

"Tommy, calm down. It's okay," she said as she leant over to him, and put an arm around his shoulder. He looked at her face, and suddenly the room took on a pale grey cast. "It's not as if you murdered one of my best friends." He was horrified when her hair suddenly changed to a short crop, and a scar appeared on her left cheek, reaching up past the eye. He looked at the eyes of the woman he loved, and recoiled from the betrayal he saw there.

He suddenly opened his eyes again, and was lying, tangled up in his sheets. His head snapped round fast enough to be painful as he looked at the side of his bed where Kimberly had been mere moments before, but found only the empty side of his bed. He felt physically exhausted, as if he had just gone ten rounds with the Tyranno drones without his powers. He let his head fall back on the pillow as he put a hand over his face, and tried to regain control

"A nightmare," he said to himself. "Just a bad dream, nothing more." He kept muttering that, as he got out of bed, and pulled on a robe. No matter how often he said it, he wasn't willing to chance sleep again tonight.

* * *

"Class, I told you yesterday that I'd be asking random questions about the reading you've been doing," Tommy said as he paced in front of them. "What I didn't tell you, was that the questioning will be in the form of a pop quiz." A groan ran through the class, as he picked up a stack of papers, and handed them out to the kids in the class. 

"You know the rules for these, and as this is your last class for the day, when you're finished, you can leave early." He fixed the entire class with his most intimidating teacher-stare. "That wasn't an invitation to do a sloppy job, just to get out a few minutes early."

With that, he sat back down behind his desk, and busied himself going over one of his text books while the scrabble of pens and pencils sounded in the otherwise silent class. It didn't take more than a few minutes for him to grow restless, not to mention drowsy. After his aborted attempt at sleep last night, and the nightmare that convinced him not to try again, he'd stayed up doing research on gem. He'd even read Hayley's manuals, and tried some basic scanning equipment even if it had taken him half the night to set it up properly.

He hadn't got anywhere by the time his alarm buzzed, and only the fact that Hayley had wired his alarm to the computer system downstairs in case of midnight Ranger activity which threatened to make him late for class had reminded him that he needed to get going. She was going to be upset that he'd started to examine the gem when he'd promised her he'd wait till she arrived, but he could live with that.

Without consciously registering it, he got to his feet and walked over to the window, clasping his hands behind his back, as he stared out across the lawn, past the houses nearby, and towards the bridge in the distance. The classroom seemed to fade away behind him, as he took in it's tranquility, and for a brief moment, he just enjoyed the quiet. The moment didn't last however, and his eyes widened, as the gorgeous day began to take on a red and orange hue. Disbelief was written on his face, as he saw huge pillars of flame, and cloud erupt from the buildings in Reefside, as if they had been hit by energy weapons.

He knew he should be helping, he was a Ranger, and the city he was sworn to protect was being destroyed, but he couldn't move, even as the city seemed to crumble infront of him, leaving nothing but a decaying ruin, under a blood-red sky. He looked into the remains of the city, and like a whisper of a voice that sounded so familiar, soft and feminine, he heard someone speak.

"Your fault."

"No," he said vehemently, as he took a step back and closed his eyes. When he opened them again, the world was seemingly back to normal, and the blue sky and sunshine was shining down on an otherwise tranquil Reefside. He looked into the class, and saw that a number of the students, including his Rangers, were looking at him with barely disguised worry in their eyes. Others looked just as worried but were hiding it better, but there didn't seem to be anyone who hadn't noticed.

Moving very slowly, and very quietly, he walked back to his desk, and sat back down again with his textbook, and tried to pretend like everything was normal, even as that maddening voice kept ringing in his mind.

* * *

"Your fault, Tommy Oliver. This is all, your fault." 

An hour after class, Tommy was walking down the stairs of a hotel with Eamon, and yawned as he stepped out into the late afternoon sun. He closed his eyes for a moment, enjoying the warmth of the sunshine on his face, before he shook himself and kept moving.

"You look tired Tom," Eamon noted. "Please tell me you got some sleep last night rather than spending it examining that gem."

"I tried to sleep," he said with a nonchalance that fooled neither of them. "I just kept having bad dreams so I finally decided that if I couldn't get any rest, I'd get busy."

"I guess I should be grateful I've never had any trouble with insomnia," Eamon said with a smile as they walked to the carpark lot. He dropped his bag into the back of his car and sighed. "Been too short a visit this time round. How would you feel about me coming back to Reefside in the not too distant future?"

He smiled, "I'd like that. I hadn't realised just how out of touch I've been with the world outside of Reefside till recently, and I've got to admit, it's nice to have a non-Ranger related perspective from time to time."

He reached out his hand, and Eamon clasped it in an old warriors-handshake. "Then you'll have it. I'm not a Ranger Tom, and lord knows I'm not sure I could be, but you've made me realise that sitting on the sidelines while my friends fight the good fight, just isn't in my nature anymore."

"I appreciate that Eamon, but one of the reasons we keep our identities secret is to make sure that innocent people don't get caught in the crossfire."

"I can see why you'd do that," he admitted. "Still, I've got access to resources, different resources, than you might usually want or need, but I want you to know that they are available. If you need, well, anything that the owner of a serious multinational can offer, you call me, okay?"

Tommy smiled at that. Looks like Eamon really had changed after all. "I will. Only if it's an emergency mind you, but I won't forget."

"Good, and I'll try and keep in touch more than once every five years from now on."

"I'm sure Hayley will be pleased," Tommy said dryly, and was rewarded by Eamon blushing violently and he laughed at that. "Something I should know about?"

The blush turned even darker, but there was a smile lurking on Eamon's face. "Hayley, has decided that maybe I'm not total scum after all. I get to come back in a weeks time and prove it. I know it's not much,  
but it's a start, and it's good enough for now."

"I'm pleased," the Ranger said. "Don't look so surprised. Hayley gave up a lot when she came here to help me build the Morphers, and take care of the Zords and the equipment. She's sacrificed as much as any of us has in terms of a personal life, to run the Cyberspace and keep me and the other Rangers alive. I'll admit, you're not the first person I would've picked for her, but she could do a lot worse."

"Great way to boost my ego Tom," he said sarcastically. "I'm not the worst person in the world for her."

"I didn't mean it like that," was the response and they both fell silent again for a second, before Eamon opened the door and got in, starting the engine with a practiced motion.

He looked up at his friend, whom he had come to see in a totally new light recently, and tapped his head in a two fingered salute. "You take care of yourself Tom. It's a dangerous life you've picked, and I want to be able to hear all about it when we're doddering about an old people's home half a century from now."

"I will, safe journey," he responded, as Eamon put the car in gear, and got moving. Tommy watched him go, and hoped that Eamon's prediction of the two of them in an old folks home was an accurate one.

* * *

"I tell you Hayley, it was creepy," Conner explained as he leant up against the bar in the cafe, as Hayley was making the drinks Trent was serving to people. Ethan was over at one of the PC's, and Kira was in the back, by the stage with her band, going over their list of songs for the evening, leaving him by himself, and worried. 

"Are you sure you're not worrying too much?" she asked as she passed a drink to Trent who took it and vanished towards one of the tables to deliver it. "I mean he could just have been tired."

Conner shook his head emphatically. "It wasn't just that. He just zoned out staring out of the window, and then he looked scared. Not just tired. Like he'd seen something from his worst nightmare." The soccer star brushed a hand through his hair. "I've never seen him look scared Hayley, it just isn't right."

She looked at him sympathetically. "He's human Conner. He has bad nights, same as everyone else, and if there was anything else wrong, I'm sure he'll tell us when he gets here."

Conner frowned at that. He didn't know what was going on, but he was sure it wasn't as simple as a bad night. He tapped the bar with his hands for a second before coming to a decision. "Hayley, I'm just going to head out for a while. I'll be back." He turned and sprinted out the door before Hayley could respond, and she paused in her drinks-making, then sighed. She hoped that Conner was just worrying over nothing.

It didn't take Conner long to get to Tommy's place in the woods, and he trotted up to the front door and knocked. There was no answer, and he tried again, and after a few moments, fished the spare keys that Dr. O had given the Rangers and Hayley out of his pocked and used them, unlocking the door and going inside. He walked over to the Dinosaur skeleton and pulled it's jawbone down, opening up the trapdoor and walking down. If Dr. O. wasn't here, then maybe he could find him using the scanner.

It might have surprised all of the others that he knew where the scanner was, and even more that he knew how to use it. But ever since he'd seen the videotape their teacher had left, and it had given him an inkling as to how far and deep the Ranger legacy stretched, he'd found himself spending a fair amount of time going through the archives on the computers. Apparently after a mission to the moon, the thought of which still made his eyes bug out slightly, Dr. O. had convinced the other Rangers he had met there that what was needed was a central database, of histories, and missions and monsters and powers and Zords, so that new Rangers could learn from the lessons of the old teams. Even for Conner, who was not a bookworm at heart, it was fascinating reading.

He chuckled to himself as he thought about how Kira and Ethan might react to the idea of him voluntarily sitting down and reading. Somehow he didn't think it would surprise Dr. O, or Hayley for that matter, and he hardly cared what Trent thought. And it wasn't as if he'd been keeping it a secret, he'd just found it easier to concentrate when the others weren't around, and the fact that Dr. O. had told them they could come to the lair whenever they wanted, meant that he had been able to study in peace.

He got to the bottom of the stairs and looked around. The computers looked like they were on standby, the Raptor cycles and the other equipment looked fine, but there was no one there. He was about to turn and go back upstairs when something caught his eye. On one of the side desks there was a little jewelry box, with a folded piece of paper beside it. He wandered over to it, and opened up the paper.

"Make sure this gets into the hands of the Rangers," he read out loud, then carefully picked up the box. He opened it with a click, and looked at the item inside. He put the paper down, and used his free hand to pick up the gem to get a closer look at it. The dark smokey interior seemed to shift, like dust caught in the wind, just as he heard someone behind him yell,

"Conner, don't!"

But it was too late, and as the gem lit up in his hand, his eyes widened at what he saw.

"No," he breathed heavily. "Way!"

tbc...


	5. Chapter 5

**Name: **Ascendancy  
**Chapter 5: **There But For The Grace Of God, Go I  
**Disclaimer:** I own nothing, I am nothing. I am one with the gestalt. Sue him  
**Archiving:** It's yours if you want it, just let me know where it's posted.  
**Summary:** Conner has a vision from the gemstone, and Tommy recalls his own past.  
**Shoutout:** To Jeannine, for writing a fic that stirred in me the desire to write again myself.

* * *

The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.  
- Mahatma Gandhi

* * *

The first coherent thought Conner had was pain, as he staggered backwards. After a moment, it passed, and he finally opened his eyes. He looked around, dropping into a lightly defensive stance, just in case. Something about this place was raising his hackles, and it wasn't just the fact that he'd been in the Lair only a few seconds ago looking at what obviously wasn't a normal gemstone.

He looked around, and was surprised to find that he recognised where he was, even if it wasn't supposed to be like that. He was near the school, or rather, the gutted remains of the school. It looked like something had torn the top three feet off the building, then blown it up from the inside out. Whatever had happened though, he thought as he walked over, was long done. There weren't any visible fires, or smoke, and the damage looked like some kind of moss was growing over it. He glanced up at the blood-red sky, unsure of what it meant.

He stared for a moment, before he reached out to touch the wall, his mind oddly calm as he considered his immediate options. He had no idea how he came to be here, and the gem hadn't traveled with him, so he had no easy way back. He had eaten only about an hour earlier, and he still had a small bottle of water in his jacket, but if he was here for any length of time, he'd need to consider how he'd go about getting food and drink.

His train of thought came to a halt as his hand passed through the piece of building he was going to touch, and he waved his hand through the wall a few times. "What the heck?" he wondered. "Okay Conner, think, what are the options here," he said out loud to no one in particular.

It was possible he was a ghost, he supposed, but he didn't remember dying, and even if he had, then why did the school, and the town of Reefside beyond it, look like it was a scene from some post-apocalyptic sci-fi flick? He licked his lips.

Alternate reality? he thought. I mean, don't they usually look like this, unless it's a Jimmy Stewart thing, Bizarro world and all. But why can't I touch anything? He chased round a few more possibilities, before deciding that It really didn't matter where he was, he just needed to find a way back. Having nowhere else to go, he decided that he would head for Hayley's. Then from there to Kira's, Ethan's and if he hadn't found anything until then, Dr. O's.

"After all," he said to himself. "No matter what reality I'm in, he's always going to be the weird dude with the Zord in his basement."

He was about to set off, when he heard the sound of yelling in the distance. All plans fell from his mind, as his instinct took over, and he took off for the sound. As he ran, he realised two things that were both rather disconcerting. The first was that he could take a very direct route, through walls, rather than around them, and second, that he had neither his Dino-Bracelet, nor his super speed. The last thing bothered him more than the first, as he felt uncommonly vulnerable without his powers.

He leapt through a wall onto a road, and stopped in surprise. Not far from him, a small group of people both adults and children, were huddling by a wall, as they were surrounded by what were very obviously thugs. What surprised him, however, weren't the thugs, or the huddled crowd, but the lone figure standing between the two.

Kira looked different, but there was no way he could have failed to recognise his teammate. Her hair was tied in a long intricate braid, and rather than the yellows she usually favored, she was wearing what looked to be very serviceable street clothes, with a brown duster coat over the top.

"Hey," he shouted as he leapt forward. "Why don't you try seven against two!" He was surprised to find that no-one paid the least bit of attention to his shout, and decided to take advantage of the situation. He had no idea what was going on, but he wasn't about to let Kira stand alone, and he held his arms wide as he came in at a full run intending to double clothesline two of the thugs.

Rather than the impact he was expecting however, was a horrible sense of wrongness, as his arms passed straight through the bodies of the thugs, as easily as he had passed through walls. He stumbled when the expected impact didn't happen, and careened straight into another one of the thugs, and almost screamed as he passed through him. He came out on the other side, his entire body wracked in pain, which mercifully subsided almost as soon as he was clear.

He realised with a crushing feeling of failure, that if they couldn't hear him, and obviously couldn't see or feel him, that there was nothing he could do to help.

Oblivious to his thoughts, one of the bigger thugs, apparently the leader took a step towards Kira, a nasty grin on his face. "Looky here boys. Not only can get the reward for catching the runaways, we get ourselves a toy as well."

Conner blanched as the meaning of the words sunk in, but Kira didn't even seem to notice. She hadn't moved a muscle since he had come through the wall and seen her, and even now, her eyes seemed to be clear and calm, almost as if she was waiting. As the chief thug stepped forward, he found out that it was exactly what she'd been doing. She released a perfectly timed snap-kick to the man's jaw, his head snapped back, and before he could even scream, Kira spun and drove her left elbow into his throat with enough force that Conner hear sickening sound of the man's windpipe being crushed.

It all happened so fast that Conner's jaw was only just beginning to drop open, as the petite girl reached up with sure hands, grabbed the thug on either side of the head and twisted. A dull crack echoed through the street as the thugs neck broke in her hands, and the body dropped limply to the ground. "Fool!" she spat at him, then her eyes leveled on the others like missile batteries, as she flicked the coat with her hands, making sure she had good maneuverability.

"What about the rest of you?"

The thugs stood undecided for one moment, then rushed towards her, and she leapt forward, arms and legs spinning. She fought like a madwoman, all moving limbs and flashes of brown and blond and what she hit, she killed.

Conner stumbled back, his eyes wide as the shock of what he was seeing thundered through him. Kira was one of the kindest people he knew, sarcastic to a fault, and a great fighter, but never this cold and vicious. She did incredibly well against the odds, but six against one was apparently too much even for her, as one of the thugs snagged her coat and pulled her down.

"No!" Conner shouted, as the thugs beat and kicked her. There were only four left, and two were quick to stop to make sure the runaways, but the other two just kept at it, until one of them sat down on her midriff and began to tug at her top, a sick leer in his face as his companion laughed. Conner wanted desperately to close his eyes, at what his brain already knew was about to happen, or to find some way to join in the fight, but there was nothing he could do.

The young Ranger screamed in frustration, but suddenly stopped as he heard an echo. The thug on top of Kira suddenly slumped over, a heavy dagger appearing in his back, and Kira quickly rolled him off and scrambled to her feet while the others were distracted. Conner wanted to whoop for joy, as he saw her take up a defensive stance, even as he realised just how hurt she was.

"Don't you people know that you get girls by giving them flowers and dinners?" the newcomer mocked, and Conner froze. The successive surprises were wearing him down, so the fact that the stranger spoke with his voice was only mildly shocking. He took in his alternate, and raised an eyebrow. His other self obviously preferred leathers, and dreadlocks by the look of it. The style, Conner felt, did him no justice whatsoever, but he had to admit that even he would think twice about harassing the man he saw before him.

Bizarro-Conner, as the Red Ranger dubbed him, strode forward, all business and smirk, until he was nose to nose with one of the now three surviving thugs. "Get lost." he said, the smirk still frozen on his face, and the thug snarled at him. It was the last thing the thug would ever do, as a pair of knives, slimmer than the one buried in the other thugs back, but no less sharp and lethal for that, dropped from Bizarro-Conner's sleeves. He slashed once with each knife, opening up the thug from right-shoulder to left hip and vice versa. Without ever moving his eyes, he flung his left arm forward, and buried a dagger in the chest of the thug that was standing away from Kira, even as she efficiently demolished the last of the thugs, before the first one had even finished falling.

Retrieving his knives, Bizarro-Conner looked at the fighting stance that Kira had now turned to him, and blew a stray dreadlock out of his face. "Oh ease up," he said, no warmth in his voice, and Conner was disappointed to realise that this Conner didn't know Kira. He had somehow assumed that no matter how strange the circumstances, he, Ethan and Kira would be on the same side.

"I didn't roll over for them, and I'm not going to for you," she replied defiantly. Standing between him and the runaways.

"Hey, any rolling we do, we'll do because you wanted to," he said easily. "I'm Conner McKnight, I'm with an enclave near the edge of town, I was asked to come find you when we heard of the breakout."

"Really, you're the infamous Conjob?" she asked sarcastically. "You don't look the part."

"You're right. I don't," he agreed cheerfully, "But then, half the stories doing the rounds about me are lies, the other half exaggerations. Now are you coming, or do you want to wait for another band of ticks to come by?"

"Do I have a choice?" she asked, but she had already straightened up, in the surest sign that she didn't feel threatened.

"Lady," Bizarro-Conner said with a grin. "From here on in, you've always got a choice."

"Are you okay?" The voice made Conner look around sharply, and he clutched his head as a monster headache hit. As he opened his eyes, he realised that he was back in the Lair, lying on the ground, with the gemstone lying next to him. Dr. O. was sitting on one knee beside him, looking at him with worried eyes.

"That was intense," Conner complained as he tried to sit up, making the headache worse, and he kicked the gemstone across the floor. Whatever had happened, he was sure it was the gem that did it.

"What did you see?" Tommy asked gently as extended an arm to the youngster, who grabbed him by the wrist and hauled himself up. Conner seemed shaky, and his wrist felt clammy even as his eyes darted around, looking for something.

"Kira," he said suddenly, and started for the stairs. "I've got to find Kira."

"Conner wait," Tommy called, and followed him upstairs. "Whatever you saw, it isn't real."

Conner spun round, and there was a wild desperation in his eyes. "How can you be sure?"

"Because there has been something wrong with every vision I've had so far. Aside from the fact that the events didn't happen, or didn't happen that way, there was something else wrong. Something I couldn't put my finger on."

Conner swallowed. "Darkness." Tommy nodded after a moment. That was exactly what had been wrong with the visions. He wrapped an arm loosely around Conner's shoulders as he guided the younger man to the couch.

"No matter how messed up this world is, it isn't dark, defeated, like the one I saw," Conner finished, and Tommy was amazed at what he saw in Conner's eyes. One thing the young man had never lacked was confidence, and one thing the elder Ranger had never expected to see was bone deep despair.

On the other hand, he had felt the same way when he woke up from his vision last night, so he could hardly blame him for that. What's more, he had felt similar for months after his time as Rita's Ranger. He hadn't understood at the time why he felt that way, after all, it hadn't been his fault. No human could fight Rita's magic without help.

For days, he'd been sunk so low in the pit of despair that he had wondered if it would ever end. Jason had noticed, and after one afternoon practice session, done from mechanical necessity rather than desire at that point, Jason had sat him down and talked to him. Just invited him to talk, about anything, about nothing if he wanted, but to stop bottling things up.

It had taken most of the afternoon, but Jason had listened, and helped, and given his advice, and at the end, he'd said the one thing that Tommy had desperately needed to hear. What none of the Rangers had said, not in so many words, even after they had saved him from Rita's spell.

I forgive you. It had been the one thing that Tommy had needed to hear. He might have known in his head that they had forgiven him, but that was knowledge of the head, not of the heart, and to hear Jason say the words, had been the first step towards allowing him to forgive himself. It had taken years, for months after the event, he'd had nightmares. There were still days when he had a hard time forgiving himself, but it had started there, and then, with Jason in Ernies.

He had come so far in the intervening years. From green, to white, to red, to black, he had fought for the side of good for most of his life in one way or another. Even the Tyranno-drones were born out of a basic desire to advance knowledge. He was personally responsible for saving the world several times over, although he was hardly alone amongst the Rangers in that regard.

As he looked at his young friend, he realised that he had come full circle in one way at least. Just as Jason, and later Kimberly, and the others had been here for him, now he was going to be there for Conner. He was depressingly certain that the other Dino-Rangers were going to need to be there for their leader as well.

Conner might not be suffering under the curse of an evil spell, but if his vision had been anything like Tommy's own, then it was the kind of event, that could easily scar a person emotionally, if not dealt with. The circumstances were different, but despair, regardless of cause, was the essentially the same.

"Talk to me Conner," Tommy said, voice full of compassion, as the young Ranger sunk down on his couch. "I've got nowhere I need to be right now, so why don't you tell me what happened, or don't, but talk to me."

"The city was destroyed," he whispered softly. "And I don't think we were here, at least not as Rangers." Slowly, Conner McKnight, who had been chilled to his very soul, began to explain.

* * *

As the wind howled around him, the man wiped the hair out of his eyes, which remained firmly fixed on his companion. As the companion groaned, and sat up, the man smiled tightly.

"Are you with me again?" he asked. "And willing to tell me what happened this time?" The night before, his companion had also collapsed, screaming in pain. That was wrong, for his companion had never screamed like that before.

Dark eyes focussed on the man. "I will tell you what I know, lone wolf," Zen-Aku growled.

Merrick Baliton grimaced. He didn't know what was going on, but he was sure he wasn't going to like it.

Tbc…..


	6. Chapter 6

**Name:** Ascendancy  
**Chapter 6:** Breach Point  
**Disclaimer:** I own nothing, I am nothing. I am one with the gestalt. Sue him  
**Archiving:** It's yours if you want it, just let me know where it's posted.  
**Summary: **Mesogog begins to change his strategy, and the Dino Rangers fight the result.  
**Shoutout: **To Jeannine, for writing a fic that stirred in me the desire to write again myself.

* * *

Choices are the hinges of destiny  
- Edwin Markham

* * *

Tommy and Conner got to Cyberspace near the end of one of Kira's sets, having talked for some time. Whereas he would usually make his way to the front of the crowd, for once, Conner was willing to remain at the back and just watch. Tommy excused himself to go talk to Hayley, but Conner barely noticed, his total attention focussed on the girl with the guitar at the front of the stage. The set soon finished, she hopped off the stage, as Ethan and Trent joined her, and Conner started walking towards her. 

"Hey Conner, what kept you?" she asked as he joined the group. Moments later, her curiosity was swept away in surprise as he stepped towards her, and enveloped her in a bone-crushing hug. For about half a second, she was completely baffled, and then she hugged awkwardly back. He let go after a moment, and stepped back, an odd smile on his face, and she raised an eyebrow.

"What was that for?"

He twitched his shoulders in a demi-shrug. "For being you."

When no further comment was forthcoming, Kira's eyes narrowed, and she glanced at Ethan and Trent, both of whom looked as surprised as she did, though Trent looked a little put out as well. "Am I supposed to know what that means?" she asked, growing tired of Conner's silence.

"Probably not," Tommy said as he joined the group. He'd seen Conner's reaction, both at his place, and here, and he understood it. He'd almost called Kim after he'd had his nightmare about her, but put the phone down halfway through dialing. It wasn't as if he'd talked to her more than once since high school, so how could he expect her to just pick up the phone, and help him through it. He put the thought aside, and looked at Conner. "I'll give you all a briefing later."

Conner nodded ever so slightly. He could trust Dr. O. to tell them what they needed, while using some tact at the same time. "In the meantime," the young man announced. "Drinks are on me." He hadn't missed the look on Trents face when he had hugged Kira, and he resolved to do something about it in the very near future. Not tonight though, tonight was for having fun.

* * *

Elsa chewed her lip nervously. Mesogog had told both her and Zeltrax to be in the main room of his fortress and had left no room for argument, but he hadn't appeared yet. Zeltrax, she noted with disgust, being a cyborg didn't have any facial expressions, so she couldn't even tell if he was as nervous as she was. She paced around the room, swearing inwardly to herself. Mesogog was getting more and more angry at their repeated failures to deal with the Power Rangers, and she knew that if he ever reached the end of his fuse, her life would be forfeit. 

She looked at the mechanical man standing off to the side, who hadn't moved substantially since he got to the room, and glared at him. The least he could do was act like he was even slightly nervous. He noticed her looking and turned his head towards her, but otherwise gave no indication that he had any idea which way her thoughts were going. She was about to snap something at the man, when one of the sets of doors opened, and Mesogog walked in.

"Good," he hissed. "There is going to be a change in our strategies. Until now, I've eschewed using high technology for this fight against the Rangers. However I don't care about hypocrisy, only in the achievement in my goals." Neither of his subordinates had any intention of angering him by disagreeing, so they stood silently and waited for him to continue. However after almost half a minute of silence, Elsa couldn't help herself.

"Lord Mesogog, what do you mean?" His head snapped round, and reptilian eyes narrowed as he stepped towards her. He raised his hand, and ran a single claw lightly down the side of her head.

"What I mean, Elsa," he intoned. "Is that I intend to use technology more fully to bring back the age of the dinosaur." he stepped towards the geno-randomiser and began tapping. For almost two minutes, he tapped on the keys, then activated the machine. As it created a new monster to his specifications, he also brought up a hologram in the center of the room. He turned to it, and noted with approval the shock on Elsa's face as she recognised what the hologram was. Zeltrax, was looking at it also, and turned to him.

"My lord, are you..." he faltered as if trying to organise his thoughts, and Mesogog laughed.

"Oh yes Zeltrax. I am very sure. Now, send this new monster to deal with the Rangers."

* * *

The drinks had been handed out, and Tommy had given the others a very brief description of what Conner had seen. He had explained that in his theory, the gem was giving visions to people of a dark reflection of their own world. Angel Grove destroyed by the Green Ranger, Conner in post-apocalyptic type of world. 

"Conner's Dino-gem was glowing," he added. "When I came down the stairs and saw him holding the gem. So it may have some reaction to them."

"That still doesn't explain Conner's PDA," Ethan said with a teasing smirk, but Conner didn't seem amused.

"That world I saw?" he asked a bitter tone in his voice. "Let's just say that I wasn't a nice person, and that Kira was almost killed." He didn't add that Kira had been well on her way to the proverbial fate worse than death, as there was no need to worry the others unnecessarily.

"Well, I'm here, and okay," she said softly, putting a hand on his shoulder, and he glanced over, a grateful smile on his face.

"I know, I guess I just wanted to make sure."

He was about to say something else, when Hayley came over, looking worried. "I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the computer tells me we've got monster trouble," she told the group without preamble. "The docks."

Tommy nodded, and Conner quickly got to his feet. "We'll deal with it. Hayley, can you get back to the lair?" he asked. If she was there, they'd have a much wider range of combat options because she'd be able to send them equipment or weapons through one of the micro-portals she'd found a way to create. Tommy nodded to himself, smiling at the way the young man was taking charge. He was obviously still depressed over what he'd seen, but Conner was a born leader, and in some ways, Tommy envied him.

Hayley had already grabbed her keys and coat. "Jenny is going to close up, I'll be there in fifteen minutes," she assured them as she vanished out the door, followed quickly by the others. Before she got too far away, Tommy called out to her. "Hayley, don't touch the gem, okay? I don't know if it'll react to you as you don't have a Dino-gem, but don't take the chance."

Hayley nodded once. "Don't worry, this is one Ranger thing I don't want a part of."

They made their way out to the abandoned alley behind Cyberspace and lined up.

Conner, at the center, glanced left and right, and called out the morph. It didn't take long before they were all in their fighting gear, and took off at a dead run towards the docks.

The five Rangers came round the corner of a warehouse in the docks district, and caught sight of the monster immediately. It looked like a cross between a Gremlin and a set of tank tracks, only had a cannon for a nose. Dropping into a stance, Conner glanced at the others.

"Is anyone else hating the fact that we're fighting at night?" he muttered.

"No, but Hayley and I came up with something for that. Just follow me," Tommy responded. He brought two fingers up to his right temple. "Night vision, engage."

The others did the same, and the inside of the visors seemed to shimmer for a second, before the field of view turned pale green, and crystal clear. Suddenly, they could see as well as in daylight, just in a monotone color.

"Sweet," Ethan enthused. "Now let's go kick this thing."

The Rangers charged forward, drawing their weapons as they did, even as a small group of Tyranno Drones appeared by inviso-portal, and soon the are was blanketed by fast moving bodies, shouts, and small explosions and fireworks as the Rangers fought. It didn't seem very long, before Conner and Kira had fought their way to the creature, and had attacked it, but it was as good as any monster they had faced.

It ducked under Kira's attack, and blocked Conner's strike with the Tyranno Staff, and sent them both crashing to the ground. "Lord Mesogog will be pleased." it growled. "When I, Metallus, finish the Rangers."

"You're dreaming," Trent said, as he joined Kira and Conner. "You guys up for some teamwork?" The three Rangers nodded, and rushed in, and this time, Metallus was finding the battle much harder, and was fighting almost exclusively on the defense. As he backed up towards the edge of one of the docks, he suddenly laughed and jumped upwards. He sat there, thirty feet off the ground, laughing as the Rangers realised they couldn't reach him.

"How does something with tank-tracks fly?" Conner asked in disbelief. He didn't have time to get an answer as Metallus fired his nose gun at them, the explosions hurtling the three of them away. Conner got back to his feet, holding his ribs where he'd hit the ground hard, and looked around. They needed Ethan's hovercycle, but Ethan was still in the middle of the Tyranno-Drones.

"Trent, Kira," he shouted. "Clear a path to Ethan, then deal with the Drones." The two of them didn't hesitate, and it didn't take long to get there, while Conner cleared the Drones away from Dr. O.

"Thanks Conner," Tommy said, breathing heavily. Usually there were fewer drones, and they gave up faster. He then tapped his communicator. "Hayley, are you online?"

* * *

Hayley made good time to Tommy's place in the woods, being thankful for the fact that he'd chosen a place on the same side of town as her cafe. she brought the car to a halt in front of the place, snatched her keys out of the ignition and was out the car door in seconds, and into Tommy's house moments later. She fairly well ran down the stairs, noted where Tommy had left the gem, under the desk, and made her way to the workstation, logging on and bringing up the viewscreens. 

The battle seemed to be raging, but essentially well in hand, until the monster began to fly. She therefore wasn't surprised when the communications channeled activated a few moments later.

"Hayley, are you online?"

"I'm here, I'm powering up the hovercycle as we speak."

"Great, we'll clear a path for Ethan to get to it, and deal with the drones. Get ready to send out the Zords."

"Will do," she responded and began typing furiously, and triggered the portal program she'd built. While it came online, she also sent the others regular bikes and quads through the permanent portal and on autopilot to where the Rangers were fighting. There was no real need to send them through the portal she was busy creating, and the less being sent through, the more accurate it was likely to be.

The device she'd build didn't give them true access to the inviso-portal network, because it only allowed her to create one truly stable end of the vortex, the other moving about somewhat. It wasn't a big problem with a permanent portal, like the ones that they used to get the cycles into the forest, but the kind of on the fly ones they'd needed for battles had an error-factor that she hadn't found a way to correct.

She anchored the side of the portal she could to the room she was in, and programmed the other for the Rangers location. If all went as planned, it would hit within a few hundred feet at most from their position. She was so engrossed with her task that she didn't notice, when a single tendril of energy reached out from the portal and touched the gem on the floor. With a deep thrum, the gem leapt off the floor, and came to hover at rest before the portal, as more and more of the tendrils seemed to reach out and touch it.

Hayley's head snapped round as she saw what was happening, and an alert on her console reported that the portal was losing strength rapidly.

"No," she whispered under her breath as she got out of her chair. The gem was beginning to seemingly glow with the energy it was absorbing. With one more moment to think about it, she most likely would have run for it, but Hayley didn't have that moment. Realising that she had to get the gem away from the portal, before it became to weak to send the cycle through, she did the only thing she could, and lunged for the glowing gemstone.

* * *

Tommy looked up from his wrist in relief as he saw the pale green and black of the inviso-portal appear about a hundred and fifty feet away from them. He glanced back at the fight, and saw Ethan separate himself from the Drones, through the path Trent and Kira had cleared, so he could receive his vehicle. He heard something over his communicator, softly, it sounded like Hayley had whispered 'No'. 

"Hayley?" he asked, and suddenly yanked the communicator away from his face as a high pitch screech came through it, before falling silent. His head snapped up towards the inviso-portal, but before he could take a step, or say a word, the green and black began to pulse and change. The green turned to a sickly red, and his stomach twisted as he recognised the familiar color from the vision he'd seen. He started running towards the portal, and was almost there, when a sound like thunder smashed through him, knocking him off his feet as the portal exploded.

He hit the ground hard, his helmet smashing into the ground, and even through the suit he could feel the pressure of the shockwave battering him. Then, suddenly it was gone, and dazedly, he looked back where the portal had been. Where it had stood, there was now a crater in the ground, maybe three feet deep, and the portal itself was gone. Unlike most explosions he had seen, the area around the blast didn't seem to have been hit by a shockwave, it was smoothly disintegrated. He could actually see the ground beneath the road where the effect had burned through it.

He shook his head to clear the ringing in his ears, and a horrifying thought suddenly struck him.

"Hayley? Hayley, are you there?" he said urgently into his communicator, as his eyes grew wide with fear behind his visor. "HAYLEY?"

tbc...

* * *

Just wanted to give a huge shoutout and thank you to Jedi4Jesus and Ghostwriter for their reviews. Reviews are good, they're like water, they help the fic grow.


	7. Chapter 7

Quick shoutout to my reviewers. Thanks all, the reviews keep me going :)

**Name:** Ascendancy  
**Chapter 7: **A Gathering Dark  
**Disclaimer: **I own nothing, I am nothing. I am one with the gestalt. Sue him  
**Archiving:** It's yours if you want it, just let me know where it's posted.  
**Summary: **The Rangers rush to the Lair to find Hayley, and find someone they never expected.  
**Shoutout: **To Jeannine, for writing a fic that stirred in me the desire to write again myself.

* * *

The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty; not knowing what comes next.  
- Ursula K. LeGuin

* * *

Merrick awoke instantly from his dreamless sleep and rolled into a crouch, before he realised that it was Zen-Aku screaming that had woken him up. This was the third time the ancient creature had done that, and he found it more and more disturbing every time. Even as the thought chased it's way through his head, he realised that something was different this time. The first and second events, for lack of a better term, had been momentary, as he looked to where his companion was, he saw that he was down on his knees, hands on his head, and screaming for all that he was worth. 

It wasn't even anything specific, just an animal sound of pain, that seemed to go on and on, and even when he dropped to the ground next to him, and grabbed Zen-Aku by the shoulder, it didn't stop.

"What's happening?" he asked urgently, but he got no reaction to his question. Then, as suddenly as it had started, the screaming stopped, and Zen-Aku fell backward. Merrick tried to catch him, and was only partially successful. As he looked into the eyes of a creature who had at one time haunted him, he shivered. When Zen-Aku had first joined him on his wanderings across North America, he hadn't know what to make of it. The claim that they were both trying to redeem their past hadn't rang entirely true, but neither had Zen-Aku ever done anything to prove otherwise, and they had settled into a companionable rhythm

His mind was drawn back to the present, as the wolf-like being he was holding up turned it's head, the minor movement seemingly more than he could bear. "West," was all he said, voice barely above a whisper.

"West?" the former Wild Force Ranger asked, somewhat confused. "Whatever is affecting you is west from here?" He quickly thought about where he was. While he had wandered, more or less aimlessly, he had always had a rough idea of where he was. He knew he was in California at the moment, somewhere south of Los Angeles, and there weren't all that many places west from where he was, before he hit the Pacific Ocean.

Blue Bay harbor was somewhat further south, and for some reason, he doubted that he had to go there, just as he doubted that Zen-Aku meant Los Angeles. It wasn't anything definite, but he was sure that neither of those places was it, and that left only Reefside. He knew nothing of the town besides it's name. His habit of memorising maps whenever he inadvertently stumbled into civilisation had served him well a number of times before, just as it did now.

He was about to ask if that was what his companion meant, when Zen-Aku stiffened, and to Merricks amazement, seemed to dissolve in a shower of white sparkles. The weight left his arm where Merrick had been holding him, and in it's place, all that was left was a mask. Merrick shivered, as he gazed into the mask that had led him to evil so long ago, and he wanted nothing more than to leave it, or bury it, but just as he had never flinched from his duty as a Ranger, he would not flinch from it now.

Seizing the mask quickly, he put it in one of the pockets of the backpack he carried, and made sure that the embers of the fire he had started earlier, were put out. Then he cleaned up his impromptu campsite, expertly repacking his bag, and hefted it onto his shoulders. He had no idea what was going on, or what he'd find in Reefside, but Zen-Aku had been more than just a travelling companion to him these last several years, he had been a friend. Zen-Aku had been notoriously hard to kill, and the larger part of him didn't believe he was truly gone now, but whatever had sent him back beyond the pale, was obviously dangerous.

And one way or another, Merrick decided, as he started a fast jog due west, he was going to find a way to avenge his friend.

* * *

Conner heard Dr. O's shout, and the distraction it caused, meant that one of the Drones managed to land a solid punch, knocking him flat against the ground. He scrambled to his feet, knocking the Drone away. "Ethan, Kira, Trent, deal with the Drones." he ordered, then he triggered his super speed, and ran over to where Dr. O. was standing. "Dr. O, I'm going to get back to the lair, I'll make sure she's okay." 

The black visor turned to him and nodded, but just before he was about to start running, he felt and arm on his shoulder. "We don't know what's happened, be ready for anything."

Conner nodded, pivoted where he stood, and took off running. Peripherally he was aware of the Raptorcycles arriving from where Hayley must have sent them, but he didn't pay any attention to them whatsoever. He had spent a lot of time practicing with his Dino-gem powers since he had first got them. Partly it was because he wanted to know where his limits of power were, but there was another, more personal reason. He needed to be sure that he could keep his powers turned off when he had to. He was one of Reefside's star soccer players, and he had been for long before he was a Power Ranger, but at the same time, he realised the need to make sure he wasn't using his powers unfairly.

He calmed his mind, even as the city began to blur slightly as he moved, pushing his speed to it's very limit. He wondered offhand what he would look like to the people, and vehicles, and buildings he was passing by. He assumed, given how blurred they were beginning to look, that he was just a flash of red travelling through the city. He dragged his attention back to his running as he came slashing round a corner, and dodged sideways to miss the truck that was in his way. He missed the bumper of the vehicle by at least three feet, and was halfway down the block before the driver even realised something had almost hit him.

Conner took a deep breath, his powers tiring him out, especially with how hard he was pushing them, but he was nearing Valencia Drive. He adjusted his speed slightly as he came off the tarmac and onto the dirt road leading up to Dr. O's house, because the ground had a different consistency, he'd need to move ever so slightly slower if he wanted to avoid tripping, or even worse, slipping.

He came out of his superspeed as he reached the doorway, and stood there panting, and fogging up his helmet for a second, before opening the door, and pulling on the dinosaur statue. The trapdoor opened, and he was dismayed when a cloud of smoke billowed up from the trapdoor. He ignored it, hoping that the asks contained some sort of filter as he took a deep breath of the clean air and started down the stairs. The smoke down here was even worse, and Conner could barely see a foot in front of him. He took a tentative step forward, and down another step, before calling out. "Hayley?"

When no answer was forthcoming, he stepped all the way down to the ground, and tried to clear some of the smoke away from him. He didn't know what had happened, but he couldn't find Hayley if he couldn't see anything, and he began to make his way to the door controls. If he could open the outside door to the caverns, then maybe he could clear the smoke faster. He took a breath, and was relieved when the only thing he smelled on the air was a slightly acrid smell of the smoke. He took another step, and glanced down, carefully trying to keep his balance on what was obviously debris of some sort.

As he walked deeper and deeper into the smoke, he became more and more frantic in his search.

* * *

Tommy glanced at the Raptor-cycles as they came round the corner. The notion of autopilots on the bikes had always struck him as a little silly, but he would never say it out loud after today. He glanced around the battlefield. The Rangers had recovered from the implosion of the portal quickly, and had used the blast to good effect dealing with the remaining drones who were slower to recover, and now lay scattered about the battlefield. All that was left was Metallus, and as he watched the Rangers draw their blasters, the tank-monster apparently decided that enough, was enough. 

He raised his eyes and there was a flash of green as he began to teleport out, but before it completed, the view went red again, and while there was no explosion this time, the portal definitely seemed to have been disrupted as the drones and Mettalus vanished. Tommy powered down quickly and jogged to where the others were doing the same.

"Dr. O, what happened?" Kira asked holding a hand to her head. She didn't seem visibly hurt, but he knew from his own headache that she probably took a fair chunk of the blast. He glanced at Trent and Ethan, who both looked a little worse for wear, but not substantially so. Ethan, in fact, didn't seem to be hurt at all, and he wondered if that was a side effect of power his gem had given him.

Thinking about the gem snapped his mind back to the present. "I don't know Kira. I'm going to take Conner's cycle back to the lab. Given what just happened, I'm not willing to risk the portal network."

The others nodded, and quickly morphed again, except for Trent. "I'll head back to Cyberspace," he said. "I can't get to the lab any faster, and if I go pillion with one of you, it'll slow you down. Just promise me you'll let me know what happened." Tommy nodded. Hayley wasn't just a good boss for Trent, she had been his friend ever since the young man had moved to Reefside, and Tommy could see the sick worry in his eyes.

He felt it too, having known Hayley longer, and better, than any of the Rangers. He had never loved Hayley in a boyfriend/girlfriend kind of fashion, but he did love her as one of his dearest friends, and she didn't have the advantage of Ranger suits. If the lab side of the portal had exploded as violently as this side had, then the shockwave would have been devastating. With nowhere to go, the wave would have bounced repeatedly off the walls of the underground lair, and probably smashed everything in there, including Hayley.

He savagely cut that line of thought off as it appeared. 'Hayley is going to be fine,' he told himself. 'She's going to a have a sarcastic comment ready when we get there, and then we'll spend the next day or two repairing the lab and figuring out what happened.' Even has he thought the thoughts, he knew he wanted to hurry, and without wasting any more time, he saddled Conner's bike. Despite the fact that it was intended for the Red Ranger, Tommy was perfectly familiar with the kind of bike he was riding, and he kicked it into life, and opened the throttle wide, without waiting for the others.

He had realised early on in Reefside what an asset the bikes were. Because they were Rangers, no one thought twice about them breaking speedlimits or taking the bikes where they weren't supposed to go, and even if someone did object, what were they going to do? It's not as if the bikes had license plates, or were registered with the DMV or anything. He knew, as he tore through downtown Reefside, that the thoughts were a mere distraction his mind had concocted to try and deny what might be happening at his place. Surely Conner had reached it by now.

'Please be okay,' was the only mantra running through his head as he wove through traffic.

* * *

"Retrieve him," Mesogog ordered, leaning comfortably in his throne, his cheek resting on his hand as he examined the viewer. His new monster had performed well, the fusion he had sought and created was capable of fighting the Rangers. Now, all he needed to do was make the final adjustments and his new prototype monster would be ready. He hissed in pleasure at the thought, that maybe now, he had finally come up with a way to deal with the Rangers for good. 

He had witnessed the explosion of the portal with some interest, and he hoped nastily that the same explosion had occurred at the Rangers base. If it had, it might have destroyed some of their equipment, although he had little hope that it would cripple their efforts. The explosion was also why he had ordered the retrieval of his newest creation. After all, it wouldn't do to let him get damaged just yet.

Before him, Elsa was typing in commands on the console that controlled the portal network. "Retrieving now my Lord," she said, as she flipped a final switch, and the pale green of an inviso-portal appeared. But before it deposited Metallus, it flashed a dark red, and a sound like roaring winds echoed through the throne room, before something was deposited on the floor. Mesogog looked on, as the burnt, and bloody remains of Metallus and the Tyranno Drones fell to the floor. It looked like both had been through a grinder, and he suddenly realised that whatever had happened to the portal that had exploded had done something to the portal network.

Realising that he was now trapped on this island, and that his new prototype creature was destroyed, he roared in anger. Overcome by rage, he thrust himself forward and viscously kicked the remains of Metallus, even has his roar of fury made Elsa cringe and take a step backwards. "No more," he roared. "No more failures, no more victories for the Rangers."

* * *

Conner stepped through the smoke, trying to clear it with his hands, but that was a task he couldn't accomplish easily, given how much smoke there was in the basement. Instead he decided to just stay low and search the ground, and was insanely grateful that Hayley had built air filters into the masks. Aside from the acrid smell of smoke, he was breathing okay. 

He called out to Hayley once, and could have sworn he saw something move in the shadows cast by the smoke, but dismissed it as he almost tripped over something. He knelt down quickly, and realised that he'd found Hayley. Ignoring the possibility of yet another attack, he lifted her up, and ran for the stairs, only just avoiding tripping over more debris on the floor. He made his way upstairs and put Hayley down on the couch, and quickly checked her pulse.

As he put his fingers on her throat, he realised he'd never be able to feel her pulse through his gloves, and he quickly powered down. He put his fingers back on her throat, and breathed a sigh of relief when he found a pulse. Her breathing seemed to be very shallow and labored though, and her hands seemed to be somewhat blistered, but other than that, he couldn't find anything instantly wrong with her.

He was about to grab the phone and call a doctor, when an arm slammed round his neck, and he felt the edge of the blade bite his neck. He froze, instantly. A grey leather gloved arm had a blade hooked under his jawbone, and he knew he couldn't move without the blade slicing open his throat.

"If you move," a voice hissed. "You will not live to regret it. Clear?"

"Crystal," Conner said, without moving. He could feel the cold blade on his skin, and his heart was pounding in his chest, but his eyes were fixed on Hayley and her rapid, labored breathing.

"What game is this?" the voice demanded.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Conner said, putting every single ounce of sincerity into his voice, and not a small bit of pleading. "Please, you've got to let me get my friend to a hospital. The smoke she inhaled-"

The blade bit into his neck, and he stopped talking as he felt a small trickle of blood begin to flow. "You aren't going anywhere till I have some answers, what game is Zedd playing?"

"I don't know Zedd, and I'm not playing a game," Conner said again. He was pleading, not for himself but for his friend. "Please, Hayley hasn't done anything to you, let me get help for her."

It was apparent that she was about to say something when a screech from outside the house distracted them both, and a moment later the armored form of Tommy Oliver came through the door. "Hayley, Conner," he shouted, and slid to a halt as he saw the tableau in front of him. Before he had a chance to say anything though, Conner felt the blade ease as the figure through an arm towards Dr. O, and blue lightning leapt from the tip of the blade, and smashed Tommy straight back through the open door.

Conner knew he had one moment to take advantage of the situation, and he took it. With the arm holding him gone, he dropped straight down from his crouch, and brought the toe of his sneaker straight up and into the head of his attacker. There was a grunt, and Conner followed the kick, by rolling to the side and coming up in a combat crouch, his entire focus on his opponent, and on staying between Hayley and whoever this maniac was.

However, his intensity dissolved when he saw whom he was facing. Dressed obviously in Ranger armor, the figure, a female by the looks of it, had a costume unlike any he had ever seen before. The grey costume had two black triangles on the chest, and black gloves, but it was the helmet that was most disturbing. Unlike other Ranger helmets he'd seen, this was an almost continuos black sphere.

"You're a Ranger?" he asked in disbelief, even as his teacher staggered back in, Brachio staff drawn. Conner glanced at him. "Dr. Oliver, you okay?"

His words were intended simply as a question to his team-mate, but the effect could not have been more dramatic. From a ready stance his opponent, drew her blaster from her side, and point it at him, and the dagger at Dr. O again.

"Oliver?" she asked. "Thomas Oliver?" There was something in her voice that Tommy found eerily familiar, he just couldn't place it. However the tone of the question suggested that 'yes' might be a good answer to give.

Silence reigned for a moment, and then Tommy made a decision. Hayley didn't look good, and he had to end this now, so he reached up slowly, placing his staff back in it's sheath as he went, and unlatched his helmet, taking it off with one hand. "Yes, Tommy Oliver," he said, and hoped it was the right move.

The grey Ranger slowly re-holstered the dagger, and reached up with one hand and tapped the side of the helmet. It seemed to separate into eight pieces, and slide into the top and shoulders of the costume, as she shook her hear clear. As her head came back up, Conner's eyes widened in surprise, and Tommy's widened in disbelief.

He knew that face. The hair had been longer, and there hadn't been a scar on her left cheek, reaching past her ear, but no amount of change or time could ever make him forget that face. He opened his mouth, and even to his own voice, his voice sounded broken and confused.

"Kim?"

tbc……


	8. Chapter 8

**Name:** Ascendancy  
**Chapter 8:** Shadows of Histories Never Made  
**Disclaimer:** I own nothing, I am nothing. I am one with the gestalt. Sue him  
**Archiving:** It's yours if you want it, just let me know where it's posted.  
**Summary:** Tommy and the new Ranger have a heart to heart, while the Rangers take Hayley to the hospital  
**Shoutout:** To Jeannine, for writing a fic that stirred in me the desire to write again myself.  
**Shoutout:** Jedi4Jesus19, always writing more. :) Ghostwriter, Tommy/Kim? maybe...:P

* * *

Discomfort guides my tongue And bids me speak of nothing but despair.  
- William Shakespeare

* * *

"Don't be so surprised Oliver," the woman who looked so much like Kimberly Hart, yet so little, snarled. "It's not as if we haven't done this particular dance before. I don't know what trick this is, but I'm not going to fall for it."

"I honestly don't know what you're talking about," Tommy replied, powering down, and trying to present as harmless a presentation as possible. He still didn't understand what was going on, but it was quite obvious that she didn't like him, or trust him. Right now, the appearance of harmlessness seemed to be a bigger weapon than his Brachio-Staff as it was vitally important that she let them take Hayley to the hospital.

"As far as I know," he continued, In that same soft tone, intended solely to keep things calm. It was the same tone he often used with the Raptor-riders when he needed to bathe them. "This is my house in Reefside, and while we didn't exactly part on friendly terms at Trini's funeral, we didn't part as enemies either."

"Reefside?" she asked softly. "California? I was in Arizona." For a moment, she seemed confused, then her eyes hardened again and she aimed her dagger back at him. "Lies, you're lying to me again, and you won't get away with it."

Tommy wanted to swear in frustration. No matter what he said, she seemed to want to take it in the worst way. He raised his hands in a placating gesture. "Look, I just want to get my friend to a hospital. I promise you that I don't want to hurt you, or anyone else."

"Right," she sneered at him, taking an angry step forward. "Just like you didn't intend to destroy the Tyranno-Zord. Just like you didn't intend to help Rita take over the planet. Just like you didn't intend to murder Jason." With each accusation her voice had grown louder till she was shouting, oblivious to the fact that those same accusations had drained the color from his face and he swallowed the lump that had suddenly taken up residence in his throat.

His dream from the night before came back to him, where he'd seen Kimberly, this Kimberly, and heard her accuse him of killing her best friend, and then in class, where he'd heard her voice accuse him of being to blame for the ruin of the city that he had seen in the vision then. He shook his head and tried to open his mouth to deny it, but he didn't know what to say. It also made his later vision make more sense, when he had only seen four Zords come to fight the Dragonzord.

"Alternate reality," Conner breathed, and the intrusion was so sudden, so shocking that the two people staring at each other each snapped their eyes to him. "That's what this is, what this has to be Dr. O," he said, looking from one to the other. "An alternate reality, one where the original Rangers didn't save you."

Tommy nodded, a little surprised that Conner had been the one to come up with it, and that he'd been able to peg the reference, before he recalled how much time Conner had spent with the archives. He shouldn't have been though, as he better than most knew that Conner was a lot smarter than people gave him credit for. He was obtuse from time to time, and had a definite tendency to say stupid things when he didn't think about them, but he was a tremendous intuitive thinker. One of the reasons that the Red Gem had selected him, Tommy supposed, because that ability was so useful in battle.

He had also told Conner a great deal about the visions he'd had, and the young man had obviously put together the fact that in one of his visions he'd still been the evil green ranger, and had found out that two plus two, usually did equal four.

"Look," he said, turning back to the woman before him. "If Conner's right, then I'm not the Tommy you know. Even if he's wrong, what harm is there in letting him leave and take Hayley to a hospital. Whatever arguments you've got with me, she's an innocent in all this."

Her eyes narrowed, but she finally nodded. "Al right Oliver, we'll do this your way. Go," she ordered with a nod to Conner. The young man looked like he was going to protest, but one glance at Dr. O, convinced him otherwise. He got to his feet and lifted Hayley up, and then swore. His car was still at Hayley's place.

Tommy had anticipated that however, and reached slowly into a pocket and tossed the keys to Conner even as he heard the sound of the other two Raptor Riders approach. "Take the jeep, and take Ethan and Kira with you."

"You got it Dr. O," he said, as he awkwardly caught the keys without dropping Hayley. "But when we get her sorted out, I'm calling you, and if you don't pick up in the first two rings, then we're coming back to kick ass and take names." The last was said with a significant glare towards Kimberly, who seemed singularly unimpressed. Conner held her gaze for a moment, then ducked out of the house.

Once Tommy heard the Jeep start up and drive off, he relaxed again. The fact that she hadn't killed him yet, meant that he could hopefully stop her from doing it. He ran a hand through his spikes, and looked at her. "You sure you don't want to power down?" he asked wearily, and she just gave him a contemptible look. "Right," Tommy said. "Because I'm trying to trick you?

"Yes," she said evenly. "I'll admit that this is probably the most elaborate setup I've ever seen. You, pretending to be good and in a different color to boot. A new Red Ranger, what happened, Rocky to independent for you? Did you kill and replace him already?" Tommy closed his eyes briefly at the pain and anger that was warring in her voice. The implications of what she was saying was almost too frightening to comprehend

"Look, I'll stay powered down. You can kill me anytime you need to, so why don't you sit down, and tell me what's happened since you became a Power Ranger." He walked over to a cabinet where he had several glasses and some drinks. He wasn't normally a heavy drinker, but despite that he poured in a small glass of some very good Fijian rum that Hayley had bought him after a vacation there, and downed it.

It was vitally important that he figure out what had happened. If Conner was right, then this Kimberly wasn't the one of this world, and that meant that somewhere something had changed. He had a nasty suspicion as to what it was, but even if he was right, he needed it confirmed.

"I won't tell you anything that will compromise my security," she finally replied, re-holstering her weapons, and stepping away from where she was standing. Part of him recognised that by moving the way she had, she now had visibility on all exits to the living room, and was standing near to one of them herself. He sighed to himself. If Conner was right, and given the strange things he'd seen over the years, he certainly could be, then they were going to need as much information as they could get.

He finally sat down in a comfortable chair across from where she was standing. "Fine, just tell me something."

* * *

Conner didn't look back as he walked out of the door carrying Hayley in his arms. She was a light woman, but he was still laboring under the effort to get her too the jeep. It had been too long a day, too many demands on his body, and he heaved a sigh of relief as he gently put her on the back seat. 

"Conner," Kira yelled as she and Ethan ran up to him. "Is she okay?"

"She took in some smoke, we need to get her to a hospital, Kira, get in the back, make sure her head stays turned to the sides, and that she doesn't swallow her tongue," he commanded, and his expression closed in on itself as Kira de-morphed, and looked at him, eyes slightly wide.

"It's to make sure she keeps breathing," he said softly. He had seen a number of nasty injuries in football over the years, and he knew the value of making sure the airways were kept clear. "Ethan, you've got shotgun. When we get to the hospital, you're only job is to get inside, and make sure on of the A&E nurses is waiting for us when Kira and I get Hayley inside."

For a moment neither of them moved, while they were perfectly used to following Conner's orders in battle, neither one of them knew what to make of this Conner who apparently knew his way around a hospital. His expression grew thunderous. "Move!" he shouted, and Kira and Ethan quickly clambered in, even as Conner hopped in himself, and gunned the engine.

"Dude," Ethan said. "What about Dr. O?"

Conner's eyes never wavered, as he did a three point turn, and floored the accelerator. "He's busy." Wisely deciding that silence was the better part of valor until Hayley was at the hospital; Ethan said nothing else, as Conner raced down the road. After a second or two, Conner turned to him briefly.

"Tell me everything you know about alternate dimensions," he said as he yanked the wheel round and the jeep onto a main road.

Ethan looked at him, "Farscape or Star Trek?" he asked dubiously.

"Either, both, everything you know Ethan," Conner replied, and with a little hesitation, Ethan began to speak. He had expected a certain amount of snickering, or teasing, but Conner seemed to trying to absorb and understand what he was saying, and Ethan leaned back as he remembered everything he had ever read on the topic.

Only minutes later, they pulled up at the hospital, and Kira loosened her death grip on the side of the jeep. She had ignored the conversation in the front in favor of holding on for dear life, even though she was buckled in, and making sure that Hayley was okay. Conner had driven like a madman, but he had gotten them there in record time, and as ordered, the moment the car pulled up, Ethan leapt out and ran for the door.

"Come on, Kira, I need you to keep her head straight and make sure she can breathe," Conner explained as he gently lifted Hayley out of the car.

"Okay, but you're going to have to explain what's going on," she said softly as she looked at him, and Conner summoned a tired smile for her. She had a right to an explanation, and so did Ethan. Heck, even Trent probably deserved one, and he'd give them all the explanation he could, but priorities had to be maintained.

"I will, once we're sure Hayley is taken care off."

* * *

"And that's the story," Conner said, disgust obvious even over the phone. Tommy bit back a frustrated response, and forced himself to calm down. He had sent Conner and the other rangers to the hospital with Hayley because he didn't want anyone else around while he talked with this grey ranger. He was grateful that she hadn't been hurt worse than had been possible. However when Conner had called, true to his word, he had seemed to be very annoyed that he'd picked up, and that Conner didn't have an excuse to bring his team straight back to help him out. 

"So, she's going to be okay?" Tommy asked, his eyes tracking Kimberly as she stalked across the room. Despite the fact that she was still one of the most beautiful women he'd ever seen, cropped hair, scar and all, he couldn't bring himself to think of her as anything but 'Kimberly'. He knew how dangerous it was, especially given the fact that she held him in barely concealed contempt, but while his head recognized what she was, and where she was from, his heart just saw the girl he'd loved in high school.

In the half hour since the Rangers had left for the hospital, she had told him a few things of the history of her world as she recalled it, and had confirmed Conner's speculation. Apparently, he had beaten Jason during their battle on the beach, and had cut him down, stealing the red power coin before teleporting out. With one Ranger down, the remaining four hadn't been able to beat him, and he had helped Rita conquer Angel Grove, selecting a new youth to be her evil Red Ranger. In a fit of irony, he had apparently picked an aspiring young fighter named Rocky DeSantos, and between the two of them, they had one by one eliminated the other Rangers. The same spell that had held him as Rita's thrall had held Rocky as well, and the two of them had fought as well together as he and Rocky had in this world.

After that, conquest of earth happened rapidly, and when Zedd had arrived a year later, he had been pleased by Rita's work, especially with a pair of Rangers under her command. Tommy asked Kimberly about the Machine Empire, and about the Alliance of evil, but she either didn't know, or wasn't going to tell him, and he wondered how much having a pair of Rangers would have allowed Zedd to react when the Machine Empire arrived. According to Kimberly, Zedd still ruled the planet, with an iron fist, so obviously something had been different, but he had no way of gauging what had changed from the limited perspective of a single person.

Other than that, she had said little. She had spent the last decade running and hiding. Zedd apparently knew she had survived the destruction of the command center, and had wasted no time in turning a huge amount of resources to hunting her down. She had tried to organise resistances a few times, but they had always been struck down, and there were now tens of thousands, if not hundreds, of putties, and Z-Putties worldwide.

The story chilled Tommy to the bone. It was one thing to fight against evil and to know that you could make a difference, but to know that he had been the focal point for such massive changes to an entire world. It was a burden he didn't want. However he didn't appear to have much choice, and he had never shirked his duty before. Pushing the thought aside, he listened to Conner's response.

"That's about the size of it, she's awake, sort off, but they want to keep her overnight for observation, and," the sentence was cut off by a yawn, and Tommy smiled to himself. He was profoundly grateful that this all happened on a Friday, because it meant that they'd hopefully get a chance to recover for a day or two. It was obvious though that his Rangers were as tired as he was. It wasn't much of a silver lining, but he had learned to take his small victories where he could.

He had also managed to get the various accesses to the Lair opened up so the smoke was clearing, and aside from damage to the equipment, and the hover-cycle that had been demolished, the Lair was otherwise operational.

"Good, why don't you and the others call it a day, just leave my mobile-number with the doctors in case of an emergency."

There was a substantial pause on the other end of the line, before Conner replied wearily. "Are you sure about that Dr. O? I mean, I don't think any of us would mind hanging around for a little longer, or coming back to your place" The statement was punctuated by enthusiastic agreement in the background from the other two, and Tommy heard the implicit demand in it as well.

"I know you mean well Conner, and the others too, but you're going to be no good to anyone if you're exhausted yourself. You don't need to come here either. I've spent plenty of hours in hospital chairs, and there is just no way you'll get a decent nights rest. Go home, and then tomorrow come here. I'll brief the four of you on what I've learnt, and then we'll make plans from there."

"All right, bright and early tomorrow, right?"

"Yes Conner, goodnight," Tommy replied, Lord knows, he liked the teens immensely, but sometimes they drove him crazy.

"You're little Ranger friend worried I'm going to hurt you?" came the question from behind. He looked round to find Kimberly looking at him with a lazy smile on her face.

"Yes," he replied simply. There didn't seem to be any point to being anything other than honest about it. "To be honest, I'm not sure I blame him. After all, you did put a knife to his throat, and blew me through my front door."

"Then maybe I should just leave, and then you won't have to worry," she snapped as she took a step forward, and Tommy leapt to his feet as well. He realised how precarious his position was, especially since he wasn't morphed, but he still took up a place between her and the front door.

"Sorry, I can't let you do that," he said. There were a lot of reasons why, not limited to the fact that she had no idea what this world was like, and that she had no idea of how to exist here.

Kimberly, however, didn't feel like being stopped, and took a step forward swinging her right arm wide. He automatically brought his arm up in a block, but she had anticipated that, and her booted foot snapped out with the speed of a striking serpent, catching him in the gut. He doubled over at the strength of the blow, and her second punch connected, sending him crashing sideways over the couch.

She laughed, and it wasn't a pleasant laugh. "And how were you going to stop me?"

"Wait," he groaned as she walked out the door, and he clambered to his feet. With one hand he held his painful ribs, as he followed her outside, and nearly ran into her back. She was standing on the porch, her arms held loosely by her side, as she stared upwards through the trees at the night sky.

"Stars. This...How?" There was such wonder in her voice, that Tommy actually blinked several times, as he moved to her side. For the first time since she had arrived, there was no expression of anger, or contempt on her face, just amazement.

He didn't know why, but he knew that he'd stumbled onto something important here. Mere starlight shouldn't have created a mood swing this enormous unless there was something else he didn't know. "We have them every night," he said softly.

"But no one's seen stars at night since the factories became operational," she breathed, disbelief on her face. The enormity of what was happening seemed to slam through her like a thunderbolt, and she sank to the ground on his front porch, as a single tear tracked down her face. "It really is true isn't it?" she asked, not really seeking an answer.

Her Ranger suit seemed to evaporate around her, leaving her in what looked to be serviceable clothes, designed to blend in to a crowd, with the only exception seeming to be a small necklace around her neck. Tommy recognised the gemstone on it, as similar to the one Eamon had brought with him, and he suddenly began to have an idea as to what might have happened, even if he had no idea how. He put the thought aside fot a second, as he sat down beside her.

"We have them every night. I know you don't believe me, but here, in my world, we beat Rita, and Zedd, and King Mondo, and Divatox, and Dark Spectre. And every generation of Rangers since then has kept the planet safe from whatever bad guy wanted it in their trophy case."

She looked at him, and their was such despair in her eyes, that he wanted nothing more than to put an arm around her and hug her. She desperately wanted to believe, but too many years of darkness, of pain and shadow, hung over her.

"I'm..." she took a deep breath. "I'm going to need somewhere to stay." There was no anger in her voice now, as if she'd made a decision that this was either real, or such a good illusion that she was willing to risk her life for the possibility.

Tommy looked at her appraisingly. Apparently a clear night sky had been enough to sway the balance, and if she wanted to stay, then maybe they could find a way to send her back. 'Assuming she wants to go back,' he thought to himself. Either way, having her wandering about the wild was not the answer. "If you promise not to kill me, you can have the guestroom," he offered gamely. He would offer her use of the shower and washing machine later, because by the look, and smell of things, she had been wearing those clothes for a while.

"By Zordon's soul, you have my word," she said softly, and Tommy nodded.

"Good enough for me."

tbc...


	9. Chapter 9

**Name: **Ascendancy  
**Chapter 9: **A Challenge Accepted  
**Disclaimer: **I own nothing, I am nothing. I am one with the gestalt. Sue him  
**Archiving: **It's yours if you want it, just let me know where it's posted.  
**Summary: **Kimberly's constant threats against the team push Conner into doing something about it.  
**Shoutout: **To Jeannine, for writing a fic that stirred in me the desire to write again myself.  
**Shoutout: **To Jedi4Jesus and Ghostwriter for sticking with it. Thanks guys, and for C2, for the additional comments, believe me I've given them a lot of thought

* * *

I have always thought the actions of men the best interpreters of their thoughts.  
- John Locke

* * *

Tommy opened his eyes, and turned his head towards the clock on his nightstand. It told him that it was about ten seconds since he had last checked, and almost eight in the morning on Saturday, and he groaned. Despite Kimberly's promise, he had little enough faith in her right now, that he hadn't slept a wink, as every sound, even those normal to his house, was suddenly filled with a potential threat, and woke him over and over again. 

He finally decided to stop fighting it and threw off the covers, quickly getting dressed and padding down the hallway. He had a single guest bedroom where he had put Kimberly, and for a moment he was tempted to knock on the door, but decided against it. The moment of vulnerability she had shown last night had soon passed, and although she claimed she believed that this really was an alternate reality, he wasn't sure she truly believed it. Even worse, the fact that she claimed to believe it had seemed to make her even angrier. She had been angry that this world had been spared her worlds fate by what she considered a fluke, and worse, when he'd softly commented that she would have to go back eventually, she had turned on him with such a ferocious denial that he had dropped the subject for the time being.

The idea that she might stay for any length of time bothered him in more ways than one. Setting aside the fact that there was a Kimberly Hart already in this world, he had no idea how a permanent move might affect either reality, and it seemed like an awfully big chance to take. He knew, better than most how easy it was to damage a connection to the morphing grid, and if her powers were tied into someone elses, there might be a problem if she stayed. On the other hand, the description of her world sounded like a place he would probably avoid trying to return to if he could as well. He sighed and left the door undisturbed and went for the kitchen, setting some water to boil, and grabbing some coffee.

He was halfway through when he heard the unmistakable sound of Conner arriving. Between the car and the energetic throwing open of the door, it wasn't as if he was easy to miss, and Conner's called out greeting was hardly necessary. He was about to respond, when he heard a yelp, and a loud crash from the living room. Putting down the coffee he was making, he dashed into the living room, and froze.

Conner was lying on his back, one hand on the back of his head, while Kimberly was crouching, one knee on his chest, and her omni-present dagger once again at his throat.

"You're weak Red Ranger, and reckless," she hissed. "Never assume that any place is safe, and never take for granted that those you know are still your friends, if you do, your team might pay the price."

"You psycho-bitch," Conner yelled angrily, as he grabbed her by the arms and shoved her off him. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

"Just teaching you a lesson Ranger," she replied coolly. Conner was about to retort, when Tommy stepped in between them. He didn't even bother wondering how she'd gotten to the living room without him noticing, he already knew that she could very quiet when she had to

"That's enough, both of you. Conner, calm down," he told the young man, then his eyes leveled on Kimberly, and he felt himself getting angry. "The next time you pull a weapon on one of my students, I will make you regret it," his voice was tight with anger. "Understood?"

She twitched in something that could barely be called a nod, and Tommy turned to Conner again who was shaking his head in disbelief. "Conner," Tommy began, but was interrupted by his student.

"Forget it Dr. O. I'm out of here." He grabbed the door handle, without waiting.

"Conner, wait, there's still the briefing."

"No Dr. O, that's the second time she's pulled a knife on me, I can't believe you're trusting her not to do it a third time. I'll get my briefing from the others." With that, he stormed out and took his car, never once looking back. Tommy sighed deeply, and turned towards the woman in his living room, and his anger burned in him like lava.

"What's wrong with you?" he demanded, and when she didn't answer, he took a step forward. "Well?"

"Just teaching him a lesson Oliver, no harm done."

"No harm done?" he repeated. "You held a knife to the throat of my student. Hand it over." Her eyebrows went up, but there was no give in his eyes, and finally she sighed and passed it to him, handle first. "You're a guest in my house, try to act like one," he said acidly as he heard another car pulling up, and saw Kira and Ethan arrive for their morning briefing.

* * *

"It is done my lord," Elsa said proudly as she surveyed the new addition to the life-force extractor that Mesogog had ordered made. She wasn't sure about this move, neither was Zeltrax, but any disagreements they had with it, were strictly private. It wouldn't do to tell the mutant who held their lives by a thread that they had less than lively faith in his judgment.

"Good," he hissed from his throne, then pointed at Zeltrax. "I need you to go get a test subject. Anyone in Reefside will do, just make sure you do it quietly. I don't want the Rangers finding out about this yet."

"My Lord," the cyborg boomed. "I will of course obey, but with the portal network disrupted, we have no means to get to the city."

"We have a number of small craft Zeltrax, use one of them." The reply was bored in tone, as if Mesogog had expected Zeltrax to figure this out by himself.

"But sir," Zeltrax began, thinking of the time and effort involved in getting a small craft from the island to Reefside, but Mesogog cut him off almost instantly.

"If you'd rather, you can use the portal network," he said with a sibilant hiss, and Zeltrax stopped objecting instantly. They had tried the network periodically every hour on a triptoid since the network had gone down the night before, and in each case, the triptoid had been decimated by it's trip through. Mesogog hissed to himself as Zeltrax left. If his new device worked as planned, then soon the Rangers would cease to be an issue.

* * *

"And that's where we are," Tommy explained to Ethan. He desperately wanted to go and get some headache tablets as another round of sniping had developed into a full scale argument, this time between Kira and Kimberly, and once again, he could hardly fault his student for being upset. Kimberly's insinuations that Kira lacked the strength, either physically or mentally, to handle the life of a Ranger had been out of line. Kira hadn't said a word since the argument, and Kimberly had just simply moved to the window and turned her back, for all intents and purpose ignoring them.

"So what you're thinking is that the portal, being teleportation energy, tapped into our gem, which is the same as her gem, and pulled her across?" he asked, fascinated by the idea.

"Essentially," he nodded. "I want to talk to Hayley when she's recovered a bit more, and find out what she saw, if the gem is the key, maybe we can use ours to open another portal."

Ethan blew air between his lips as his mind raced. He had never been modest about his technical skills, and he had a few ideas on where to go with a device to channel both inviso-portal energy and the gems energy, but he was way out of his league and he knew it. "Dr. O, I don't think I can do this without Hayley," he admitted after a few seconds, and to his surprise, the older man laughed softly and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Then you're doing better than me, I know I couldn't do this without Hayley, and without you." Ethan blushed ever so slightly at the compliment, then got up.

"You're seeing her later today right?"

"Yeah, Trent is picking up Hayley at the hospital and going to bring her home, and I'm going for a visit later on."

"Cool, I'll wait till tomorrow then, and see what I can come up with, and then I'll talk to her."

"Thanks, and can you do me one other favor?" he asked, his voice suddenly pitched low, and he indicated the kitchen. Surprised, but interested, the two quickly departed the room.

"What is it Dr. O?"

"I need to you take Kimberly out of here for a little while?"

"What? Me?" he asked surprised. "No way, not for all the cheats in Japan."

"Ethan, I want her out of the house for a while, before I do something I'm really going to regret," Tommy said, a frayed edge to his voice. He licked his lips and sighed. "You're the only one so far she hasn't picked a fight with."

Ethan looked at him, and shrugged. "Sure Dr. O, I'll take her down to Cyberspace. She's not going to be able to get in too much trouble there, and I can keep an eye on her for a while."

"Thank you."

"Hey, you owe me. The next time I need a hall-pass, I'm coming for you."

* * *

Hayley turned round when she heard someone knock on the door of her room in the hospital, and walked over to it. The doctors had been very firm about her not talking anymore than she absolutely had to, and while she wasn't willing to become a total mute just yet, she was willing to humor them. She opened the door to find Trent standing there, and the relief in his eyes as he took her in, standing and apparently in good health was somehow very endearing.

"Hey Hayley, you're up," he said with a big smile on his face.

"Yes," she coughed, then took a sip of water that was standing on a tray by the door, then tried again. "Yes, still got a sore throat, but the doctors say i'm good to go as long as I take it easy. You here to get me out of here?"

"Your ride awaits," he said with that same smile, and gestured to the hallway.

"Then let's go, and you can tell me all about what happened," she said as they began walking. He did his best, but he wasn't up with all the technical terms the way the others were. He'd gotten a brief review from an upset Conner just as he was walking into the hospital, and passed as much information as he could to Hayley, but as neither he nor Conner had stayed around for Dr. O's briefing, it wasn't a lot.

He helped Hayley into the car, and then got in. "You know Hayley, I'm glad you're okay."

"Thanks Trent," she responded, then looked at him thoughtfully. "So if you're here, who's taking care of Cyberspace?"

Trent chuckled at that as he turned the key, and pulled the car onto the road. "I've got Jenny covering bar, and Cassie on serving, and as soon as I dropped you off at home, I'm going to go in and do stock take. Don't worry, it's in good hands."

She looked at him with a speculative look. "Tell me Trent, if I told you I was looking for an assistant manager, and I thought you'd be perfect for it, what would you say?"

He glanced at her in surprise. "I'd say I wasn't even sure you wanted me around, let alone working as your second."

"Trent, for what it's worth, as angry as I was with you, I never held it against you, because it wasn't you being a jerk."

He pulled the car over suddenly, and with a little less respect than someone should show to his fellow road users, and Hayley was stunned to see his shoulders shake.

"How can you say that? I tried to kill the others, I froze Dr. O in amber, and stole the Zords," a single tear ran down his cheek, and Hayley leaned over, and drew the young man into a hug, cursing herself, for not having realised before. She knew better than most that Trent didn't exactly have the best relationship with Anton Mercer, and really, besides herself and Tommy, who did he have as adult figures in his life.

"Trent," she finally said as she let him go. "You, the real you, would never have done that. I know that it's normal to blame yourself for what happened, but please Trent believe me when I say that all of us know it was the Dino-Gem, and not you."

"I should have been stronger," he said as he angrily wiped his eyes.

"Are you telling me you didn't fight it?" she asked, her voice suddenly her own steely self. "That you just meekly gave in when you realised what was happening?"

The young man vigorously shook his head. "No, absolutely not."

"Then trust me on this, real evil can't just be beaten by good intentions. It's immensely powerful, and hard to break, and in the end, all anyone can do is resist it, and trust that your friends will understand and forgive, and that you know you can always talk to me, okay?"

He bobbed his head in thanks, then said. "That sounds like the voice of experience,"

Hayley took a deep breath. "It is," she said. "Before the Dino-Gems picked the others, Tommy and I found an amazing amount of trouble that he could get us into, and I'd get us out of." She didn't elaborate further, and after a brief moment, he didn't ask. He merely pulled the car back out on the road. Hayley looked forward as she took a sip of water, as the talking had made her throat and lungs ache again. Still, it needed saying, and as soon as she got a chance, she'd have to have a long talk with Tommy about Trent.

She also hoped that he'd take her hint and drop the question she had no doubt he had about her and Tommy's previous experiences with mind controlling evil. It was one of the few events that could still make her wake with a cold sweat. She forcefully shoved the thought out of her mind, and tried desperately not to shiver in the warm California sun.

* * *

"Afraid of me boy?" a sneering voice stopped Conner in his tracks as he walked into Hayley's, and has he came to an abrupt halt, he thought nasty thoughts about Rangers from alternate timelines in general, and this one in specific. Of course, the fact that she'd held a knife to his throat twice wasn't helping the fact, and that he had very consciously tried to avoid her today, and wasn't expecting to see her as he entered didn't either.

He turned though, and plastered a cocky grin on his face as he walked up to the bar where she was sitting. She had obviously had a change of wardrobe since he had seen her in the morning, her grungy t-shirt and jeans replaced by newer clothes, and a black t-shirt obviously raided from Dr. O's closet. He knew she was trying to rattle him, and the fact that she was sitting with her back to the door was just one more part of that. A statement that she was so good, that she felt so secure in her ability to stop him if he did want to do something nasty, that she was his superior in every way, and it made him very angry.

"Not at all," he said cheerfully, an effective facade almost all the time. This time it was a thin veneer on the anger he felt, and he let a little bit of it slip through. "Just worried that if I'm seen with you, people will think i'm trading down." The moment he had said it, he realised how stupid, not to mention dangerous what he was doing was. Antagonising her, no matter what provocation he'd been given, was just not the smart thing to do, and his grin became a little more natural. He had never had a reputation for doing the smart thing, and it was time to trade shamelessly on that.

"What about you," he asked as her eyes flashed. "I could have sworn Kira told me that Ethan was supposed to be babysitting you," he added, leaning into one of the barstools.

"He went to the bathroom, and it's not as if he could stop me if I decided to leave," she responded with sublime confidence.

He knew she was good from personal experience, but he couldn't let her think that they were pushovers. "He's tougher than he looks. He can take care of himself, and you if he had to."

"Foolish child, It's amazing your recklessness with your team hasn't got someone killed yet,"

"That's the second time you've said that, but hey, still here, and so is my team. So how's yours doing?" He knew it was a nasty thing to say, but he wasn't prepared for her reaction. Anger he had expected, but the hurt and failure he saw in her eyes, and the set of her shoulders was a surprise, and sudden understanding washed over him. No matter how tough an image she presented to the world, somewhere deep down she was just a California girl, who was the sole inheritor of the responsibility to save the world, and she had failed.

He suddenly wondered if what Dr. O. had said, about her spending ten years on the run wasn't so much a product of the fact that she was being hunted, or of the fact that some part of her blamed herself for what had happened, and that she was running from the responsibility of taking up the fight again. He had no idea how hard it must have been to watch your entire team die around you and be left alive, but he could well imagine that flight would be the option to pick in that situation.

"Walk away right now, before you get hurt," there was ice in her voice now, and for the first time during the conversation Conner felt nervous. If he was right, and for no reason he could justify, he was sure that he was, then it would explain both her unwillingness to help find a way back, even more so than that her world was in ruin. The tentative beginnings of a plan started to form in his head, and the cost associated with it, and he realised with a bout of surprise that it was a price he was willing to pay.

Steadying himself mentally, he turned and stood, facing her fully, and took a half step forward, till they were practically nose to nose. "You think you're so tough, you know what I think?"

"Go ahead, amaze me," she snarled softly.

"I think you've given up. I think you've lost your nerve to keep fighting because of what it cost you. I think it's easier for you to run, I think you're a cow-" he said, and didn't have time to react as she punched him across the jaw. The action brought every movement in Cyberspace to a halt, but Conner, running on adrenaline and anger himself, merely shook his head once. "You know, I think from your reaction that I'm right on the money."

"I'm going to kill you," she promised darkly. Inside Conner could barely stop from cheering. She was angry enough now, that his next suggestion might just work. Of course, she was also angry enough that if he was wrong, then it was actually possible that he was going to get badly hurt, but he doubted it. She had no idea what he was capable of.

"Here?" he asked mildly. "In front of witnesses? I don't think so, how about we go somewhere quieter?"

"Where?" she asked.

"Reefside has a lovely forest, it's quiet, and no one to disturb us."

She nodded to the door, and he chuckled. "Ladies first," he gallantly bowed, and she snorted and walked for the door. Ignoring the stares of the patrons, he followed, and as soon as they were outside, and out of view, she grabbed his arm.

"Teleport by two, Reefside forest," she said as tapped a small device she was holding. Before Conner could react, he felt an odd feeling of nausea, that seemed to pass before he was even sure that he had felt it, and when he blinked, he was no longer standing in front of the cafe, but somewhere in the forests outside of Reefside.

Inside Cyberspace, Ethan stretched as he walked back into the main room, then blinked as he looked around. "Hey," he asked to no one in particular. "Where'd she go?"

* * *

In the forest Conner took stock of his surroundings. "Neat trick," he said as he shook loose his arm from her grip.

"Gift from a very talented tech in the Mariner Bay enclave," she responded. "Can take me anywhere I can visualise, and works twice before needing a lengthy recharge, so I'm walking home."

"What about me?"

"You won't be." Conner swallowed as she said it, and wondered if he'd misjudged her reaction after all, then shoved the thought away. He was committed now, and since they were now alone, and in the middle of the forest, it wasn't as if he could just walk away. He vaguely recognised the area he was in as not being too far from Dr. O's house, and decided that it couldn't be coincidental consider what she'd said about how it worked.

Turning his attention back to the woman standing near him, he did a very quick series of stretches. "You want a fight, I'll give you one," he said evenly as she watched.

"I don't know what you think you're doing boy, but I'm going to make you regret it." It was true, he reflected. She didn't understand what he was doing, in fact he wasn't completely sure himself. He just had a notion that she wouldn't listen to anyone that she didn't consider an equal, and the standards she set for equality were high. She had called both him and Dr. O weak, and from the call he had exchanged with Kira earlier, she hadn't been friendly to her either.

So if he wanted her too listen, then he needed to convince her to take him seriously, and the only way he could think of to do that was to best her in a fight. She had immense experience over him, but he had one thing she didn't have. He had never given up, never had his spirit crushed by the unending relentless grind of a war that he couldn't win. As powerful as Mesogog seemed from time to time, he really had no doubt that sooner or later, they would be able to beat him.

She had already lost her world, and knew that no matter how good she thought she was, and no matter how good she really was, she had already been beaten once. What he needed to do, was get her to remember that it wasn't about power. It wasn't about being able to put a knife to someone's throat or make threats and inspire fear.

Being a Ranger was about hope, about defending people against evil and darkness. Maybe, if he could fight her as an equal, he could talk to her while fighting, and try and make her understand, and remember that at one time she didn't see herself as someone who had failed her world, but as someone chosen to defend it.

Of course, he'd tried this outstandingly stupid trick with Trent once, and that hadn't actually worked out well at the time. "Yeah, I'll probably regret this," he agreed. "You never know though."

She just sneered at him, and placed a finger from each hand on her amulet. It was fascinating and somewhat eerie to watch her transform without saying a word. No loudly shouted catch phrase or wild movements, just a simple placing of fingers, and he was suddenly facing the same shadow and black costume she had been wearing when she had ambushed him at Dr. O's place.

He spread his stance wide, and dropped into a defensive stance.

"Don't be stupid," she said, anger in her voice. "Power up. You and I both know you can't beat me without your powers."

"If the point was to beat you, yeah, you'd probably be right," he said, his eyes never leaving her. "So why don't we do this?"

"Your choice," she replied in a cloyingly sweet voice, as she moved in to attack. "Your funeral."

tbc...


	10. Chapter 10

**Name:** Ascendancy  
**Chapter 10:** The Heart Of The Matter  
**Disclaimer:** I own nothing, I am nothing. I am one with the gestalt. Sue him  
**Archiving:** It's yours if you want it, just let me know where it's posted.  
**Summary:** Kimberly and Conner fight, and both learn something.  
**Shoutout:** To Jeannine, for writing a fic that stirred in me the desire to write again myself.  
**Shoutout:** To Ghostwriter and Jedi4Jesus for sticking with me, and C, the Ethan/Kim non-reaction will be explained in part 11

* * *

Man cannot remake himself without suffering, for he is both the marble and the sculptor  
- Dr. Alexis Carrel

* * *

Kimberly moved in fast, swing low and moving with enough speed that Conner barely had enough time to step back and block. Without wasting a movement, she then kicked high, and while he was able to bring an arm up to deflect the blow, it did send him staggering back, and into a tree. She followed up without hesitation, her boot catching him on the shoulder as he twisted, and bringing her right hand around to punch him. He narrowly avoided the first punch, and she seized his blocking hand and used it to drag him close, planting her knee in his side.

Conner fought not to cry out as the savage blow hit his lower ribs, and he hoped that he was only bruised, and that his ribs hadn't actually cracked at the blow. As he fought free, and managed to put some distance between them to regain his balance, he begun to reflect on just how stupid an idea this had been. Unfortunately, there really wasn't any way he could disengage at the moment without ruining his attempt to get her to see him as other than weak.

"Time to bleed red ranger," she said nastily as she watched him take a half step forward and ready himself. Without a word, he launched himself forward, his punches and kicks coming fast and hard, and actually forcing her on the defensive. His eyes never left hers, or rather, where he assumed hers would be given the dark helmet she wore. They soon fell into a rhythm, that to anyone watching would have looked like two people doing a well choreographed bit of exercise, but which was deadly serious to it's combatants.

Eventually, Conner found his opening and risked a short jab to Kimberly's stomach, which he followed up with a hard short kick to the head, which knocked her sideways and into a rolling crouch. Breathing heavily, Conner took a moment to catch his breath, and was pleased to note that even through the spandex he could see she was breathing faster as well.

"I'm a little impressed," she allowed, dusting herself off. "Of course, without your powers, you can't hope to win."

Conner just shook his head. "Isn't about winning," he replied tiredly.

"Really?" even through the helmet, he could hear the contempt in her voice. She didn't believe him, but that was unsurprising. It was early days yet, he thought to himself.

"Yeah," he retorted. "If that's all I wanted, heck, I'd just go Super Dino, and kick you around the forest, and if that didn't work, I'd go Triassic, and knock you across the city." There was such confidence in that statement that she actually seemed taken aback for a moment and he grinned. "Didn't know about my power-ups didya?"

"If you're that powerful, then why are you fighting me without your powers," part of him wanted to groan at the question. Still, he hadn't explained himself, and he figured that I was about time he started. He knew that despite his confident airs, he wasn't going to be able to keep up a fight at this level for long without morphing and that was one thing he had to avoid doing.

He needed to convince her of two things in this fight. The first was that they could help her, even back on her world, with information from this one. The second, was more important, he had to remind her that power in and of itself wasn't the measure of a person. Being a Power Ranger was never about having the power to beat bad guys, it was about the ability to defend the people who couldn't defend themselves against Tyranno-Drones, and Elsa, and Zeltrax and the monster of the week that they fought. Regular people could maybe fight the drones, after all, Dr. O. had before he became the Black Ranger, though maybe he wasn't a fair example, but even if he was, the monsters that Mesogog created regularly were another matter.

The world needed Power Rangers to beat things like that, and a sudden thought occurred to him, that hadn't registered before, according to the archives almost every time a new bad guy popped up, somehow there were Rangers. Most of the time, as soon as the bad guys were beaten, the power sources that the Rangers had disappeared, or were destroyed, and life went on until the next time.

Refocusing himself on the present rather than the past, he shrugged at the lady across from him. "I'm not using my powers because of something Dr. O said after we became Rangers. He gave us three rules that Jason gave him, which Jason got from Zordon," he paused for a moment. "You remember him right?"

"Don't you dare speak that name to me. He was like a father to all of us, and we failed him," she shouted as she leapt forward, and Conner was amazed at the change in her fighting style. Before, she had been good, probably better than him, but her attacks, fueled by anger were nothing in comparison. They might have had more power to them, but non of the finesse and technique they would have needed.

Blocking a strike, he grabbed her wrist, and twisted her around so he had her hand behind her back, and then he pushed forward, shoving her hard up against a tree. "No you didn't. Not until you gave up." he said urgently.

"How dare you?" she slammed her helmet back against his head and let go of her wrist as his vision exploded into stars at the impact. The moment's inattention earned him a spinning backhand to the jaw and he went down hard, spitting blood. He scrambled to his feet and wiped a hand which came away sticky, and he felt one of his teeth shift slightly when he had wiped away the blood.

"Anyway," he said, forging on and ignoring her question. "One of those rules, the ones that Zordon thought were important, was to never escalate a battle unless you had to. Oh, and there was one about not using your powers for personal gain. Can you think which two rules your breaking?"

She seemed to struggle with herself, to avoid making the same mistake she had before and come in wild and angry, and somewhat to Conner's disappointment, she seemed to succeed. The moment's anger seemed to pass, and she stepped back, and her helmet shook with what almost seemed to be laughter. "You got a point in all that babble somewhere?"

"Yup," he said, determined not to let her sudden calm get to him. "It's not about power, it's about what you do with it."

"Very profound," she said in a tone laced with mocking.

"Thanks," he interrupted with as sincere a grin as he could fake.

"But I think I'll stick to what I'm doing," she continued, ignoring his interruption and walking towards him again. She jumped, spinning in the air and planted her boot in his chest. He managed to start dodging back just in time to rob the kick of most of it's strength, but he still felt like he'd been hit in the chest with a baseball bat. He spun in a kick of his own, catching only her guard, but he'd been expecting that, so while his foot was stopped, the rest of his body continued to twist, and his hand slammed into her gut with all the strength he could put behind it. As they separated again, he twisted his neck, straightening out a kink.

"What is it that you're doing? Running, hiding, being afraid to admit that you dropped the ball?" he demanded, as he once again moved to block a ferocious assault. He was a moment to slow bringing up his block, and a solid punch impacted on the side of his jaw sending him crashing to the ground again. Before he had a chance to move, a solid kick smashed into his exposed ribs, and the power behind it actually lifted him into the air slightly.

Unable to recover, he wasn't able to stop her as she grabbed him by the shoulders, and hauled him up, slamming him hard into a tree. He grunted in pain as his spine impacted on the tree, only a moment before his head was whipped into it, and he grunted in pain as the back of his head exploded in agony. Blinking away the pain, he was surprised to find himself looking into her eyes for the first time since they started. She was still in costume, but had retracted her bowl shaped helmet, exposing her face. What he hadn't expected to see was evidence of tears forming.

"What would you know of it, you've got your safe little world, which hasn't been turned into a hellhole run by monsters and patrolled by putties," she demanded, her voice hoarse.

He didn't even bother to struggle in her grip. "You're right, I haven't been to your world, but I've seen it," he said softly. Then, his lack of resistance having lulled her momentarily, he kneed her in the stomach. As the air woofed out of her, he brought his other knee up against her forehead which was coming down and she staggered back. "I've seen the things that haunt you Kimberly, so has Dr. Oliver."

"What?" she asked, suspicion evident in her tone. Rather than answering, he moved in on the attack, and it was obvious that what concentration she had built up had evaporated, as several of his blows got through her guard. Finally, he grabbed her by an arm, and swung her round, catapulting her into a tree. she cried out as she hit it, and as she fell forward, her morph vanished.

He staggered towards her, and dropped to his knees in front of her. Slowly, he placed the palm of his hand on the gem she was carrying around on her neck. If not for the fact that he was staring straight at her, he might have noticed that the gem under his palm began to glow softly.

"Your gem," he explained. "We've got one just like it, when I picked it up, I saw images, things in a dark world, and let me tell you, it scared the hell out of me."

"Good," she snarled. "It should do. A world where humans are slave labor, where we pretend like the enclaves are actually worth the spare parts they're built from. Where anyone who isn't a putty, a monster or a traitor can be arrested and killed on sight, for no reason at all, it's a terrifying place." She grabbed hold of his shoulders as she said it, and her eyes blazed into his.

He knocked her hand away, and tried unsuccessfully to get to his feet, finally falling back to his knees. Inwardly, in a place that wasn't concentrating on how tired he was from lack of sleep, or hurt from the blows he'd taken, Conner was cheering. He had finally got her to a place where she was thinking about what he was saying, rather than just reacting in anger. Which meant that he actually had a chance to get his point across.

"So why'd you stop fighting to change it?" he asked, almost mildly.

The arm still holding him let go suddenly, and only by sheer force of will was he able to keep himself upright. She looked at him, tears now running freely down her cheeks. "Because we died. We lost Zordon, and Trini and Billy and Zack and Jason," he voice caught as she recited their names. "And I just couldn't fight anymore. Couldn't see more of my friends die, dig more graves for people I've known all my life, who died in a fight we can't win."

"Did they think it couldn't be one? Did they give up?" he said. "Because I can't imagine any of Zordon's chosen Rangers giving up easily"

"You've never been through what I've been through," she replied after a moment, and Conner shook his head.

"You're making excuses," he snapped. "Yes, you've had a really crappy decade, and yes, your world is junk, but those are just excuses. You obviously haven't given up on surviving. Look me in the eye and tell me you didn't give up on winning."

Energy seemed to crackle between them as the two of them sat across from each other. Him on his knees, hands loosely resting on the knees, her lying with her legs messily under her, unable, or unwilling to stand up. Finally, Kimberly threw a hand up in anger. "Fine, I gave up, are you happy now?" she demanded acidly.

"Not nearly," he shot back. "When we find a way back, and Hayley and Ethan will find a way back, what are you going to do, keep running, or are you going to stand and fight?"

"I can't fight them alone," she said, the words coming out clipped and precise.

"No one's asking you to. We've got files on power sources, morpher construction, and the people who became rangers. We can help you build a new team, and take the fight to the bad guys," he said. He meant it as well. He hadn't memorised all the details of every ranger team, but he knew enough to know that there were other power sources to be found. The Dino Gems for instance, or the Ninja morphers or maybe others. And with the information on where to find them, she could recruit new Rangers, and take the fight back to Rita and Zedd.

"Why would you?" she asked, pausing between each word to catch her breath.

"I'm Conner McKnight, Red Dino Thunder Ranger. It's sort of what we do," he replied simply. There was so much truth in that statement that he wouldn't have been able to sound insincere if he tried. More and more as the last year had gone by, he'd come to define himself by what he was. Part of him, he had always known, loved the idea of being a real hero, and saving the world.

His comment didn't have the same effect on her though, and something in her eyes hardened, and she surged forward. "I can't trust you, I won't be tricked again," she almost shouted throwing a punch, which he blocked by simply falling sideways. That ended uncomfortably with her half lying over his legs, and him lying on his side.

"Doesn't wash Kimberly," he said, looking back at her, even as his vision blurred a bit. "You can trust me, hell, somewhere deep inside you have to know that's the truth. If it isn't, nothing you do matters anyway. Wouldn't it be worth the risk, that maybe it's true?" his head dropped as he couldn't hold it up anymore. The exhaustion thundered through him, and his arms felt like lead weights by his side.

"Isn't it worth the possibility, that there is light at the end of this tunnel?" As he finished, his head rolled backwards, and realised he had a hard time hearing anything other than his heart beating in his chest. Kimberly rolled off him, till she was laying on the ground next to him.

"I can't..." she began to say before her eyes rolled back in her head, and the head came down. Conner tried to reach an arm out to her, but couldn't.

"Don't give up," he whispered, as he fell into the same darkness she had. "Please don't give up."

He woke up some time later, lifting his head off the ground, and immediately regretted it as pain exploded behind his eyes. He let his head fall back down to the ground, to a much softer impact than he was expecting. Conner opened his eyes, which instantly went wide. Surrounding his head was a moderately large pool of blood. He glanced over, even as the thought that this couldn't be good ran through his head, and could just about see Kimberly still lying unconscious, and for the first time since he had made the challenge at Cyberspace, he panicked.

He recalled the end of their conversation, and was sure that he'd gotten through to her, but if they didn't get out of here and get some medical attention, all the good intentions in the world wouldn't help. He tried to move the arm his morpher was on, to get to his communicator, but the pain overwhelmed him, and left him gasping for breath. He let his head drop back, and closed his eyes as he took several deep breaths, and tried to center himself. Then he opened his eyes and screamed, the scream helping him push past the pain as he forced his left arm to move, and flung it forward, near where his right arm was.

With another few seconds of breathing and concentration, he was able to twitch his fingers onto the com-panel and would have sighed with relief when it beeped, if it hadn't hurt so much to do that. He steeled himself for another second, and then spoke."Dr. O," he said, and the wave of pain and nausea that rolled over him, literally took his breath away.

"Conner?" came the concerned reply. "Conner where are you? What's wrong?"

"Not far," he gasped out. "Come quickly."

"I've got you on track Conner," he heard even as the sound receded into the distance and darkness began to claim him again. His vision grew black, and as if at a great distance, he thought he heard someone yelling his name, then he heard nothing at all.

tbc...


	11. Chapter 11

**Name: **Ascendancy  
**Chapter 11:** Consequences  
**Disclaimer:** I own nothing, I am nothing. I am one with the gestalt. Sue him  
**Archiving:** It's yours if you want it, just let me know where it's posted.  
**Summary:** A traveler arrives, and Conner's actions become known.  
**Shoutout:** To Jeannine, for writing a fic that stirred in me the desire to write again myself.

* * *

We find comfort among those who agree with us - growth among those who don't.  
- Frank A. Clark

* * *

Kira quietly fumed as she walked down the street. Talking to Conner had only partly calmed her down after the briefing at Dr. O's earlier in the day. She spent a few moments thinking some very nasty thoughts about Kimberly Hart, before trying to calm her mind down. It just infuriated her, that this woman could arrive from nowhere, and then sit there and pass judgment on them. She had heard from Conner what she had said to him, and then there were the veiled insults and attempts to insinuate that she, Kira Ford wasn't worthy to be the Yellow Ranger.

Kira came to a stop near one of her favorite music supply stores and briefly considered going in for a quick browse, but decided against it. Erik, the guy who ran the store was nice enough, and he didn't deserve to have her bad mood dumped on him. She had just about decided that what she needed was to go to the park and watch the lake for a while, when she heard something. It took her a moment to realise what it was, and then she recognised it as a store alarm.

She spun round, and saw someone come running down the street, with a security guard from a convenience store in hot pursuit. Even from her vantage point, it was obvious that the guy running had a substantial lead. Without even thinking about it, she set off at a run, and because the thief was so focused on the guard, he never saw her coming until she slammed into him at full tilt.

She'd been expecting the impact, he wasn't, and the thief careened out of his pace, and smacked straight into a parked car, falling back and onto the pavement with a dazed expression on his face. She rubbed her shoulder as the security guard arrived and whipped out a pair of cuffs.

"Thanks miss," he said as he yanked the perp's arms behind him and cuffed them.

"Just doing what was right," she said with a slight smile.

"Well maybe miss, but you'd be surprised how many people just get out of way. It takes something a bit special to put yourself in harms way to help someone you don't know," he hauled the guy to his feet, and smiled at her. "I'd like to record a statement, if you don't mind. Won't take more than a few minutes." He indicated back toward the shop.

Kira nodded absently as she followed the guard back to the shop, thinking about what he had said. As Rangers they often threw themselves into battle for people they didn't know, for a world that didn't know them, and as far as she knew, none of them had ever thought about it as being something special. It was just something they did, something they had to do, because there was no one else.

Her bad mood began to fade, and slowly, Kira Ford, began to smile.

* * *

Ethan glanced around the cyber cafe a few times, then sighed to himself and walked over to where Jenny was standing at the bar. Smiling at the girl, he indicated where Kimberly had been sitting. "Any idea where she went?"

"Sorry Ethan," she said back with a wide smile, and inwardly Ethan took note. "Conner arrived and they seemed to have a fight. I think she punched him, then they left." she grabbed her serving tray. "You know, I never figured Conner for going for a girl like that, with the scar and short hair and all."

"I don't think she's his girl," Ethan said worriedly, and trotted to the back of the Cafe, where the phones were. He really didn't want to make this call, but he had promised Dr. O. that he would keep an eye on Kimberly and he had to keep that promise, even if it meant owning up to the fact that he lost her. The fact that she'd hit Conner worried him as well, but if they left together, how big a deal could it be?

The phone rang a few times, before it was picked up. Not waiting for him to say anything, Ethan jumped straight in. "Dr. O? Just letting you know that things are going peachy so far. I don't suppose Conner mentioned coming to pick up Kimberly did he?" he said in a rush, and he could almost hear the sigh across the phone.

"No Ethan, as far as I know she's still supposed to be with you," he said with elaborate patience, and Ethan winced. He glanced around, just to be sure he hadn't missed her somewhere. Not to say that a petite brunette with a scar and short hair was easy to miss in a place like this, but still. He put a hand over the phone, in an attempt to shield the conversation.

"In that case, we may have a small problem," he whispered fiercely.

"What happened?"

He hemmed and hawed for a few seconds before answering. "Jenny says she and Conner got into an argument after Conner arrived, then they left together."

"All right, go see if you can find out what's happened. If there's a problem call me."

Relieved, Ethan nodded. "You got it Dr. O. and I'm really sorry." He meant it to. He took his duties very seriously, and even if it wasn't strictly speaking Ranger duty to baby-sit this mirror-mirror Kimberly, he still hated coming up short.

"Don't worry about it Ethan, she's been rubbing everyone the wrong way," the tone was wry enough that Ethan chuckled.

"Not me," he said with a grin. "I might not have dated her for long, but i learnt a very important lesson from Cassidy"

"And what was that?" Tommy asked, the confusion at his apparent non sequitur obvious.

"That if someone wants a fight, just agree with whatever they're saying, and ignore them. They can't pick a fight with you, because you're agreeing with them, and because you're tuning them out, you don't get upset at what they're saying."

There was a soft chuckle over the phone. "Well, look-" just as quickly, he stopped talking.

"Dr. O? you still there?" the young man asked.

"Yes Ethan," came the response. It was distant though, as if something had just happened, and the conversation was now just some unimportant thing that wasn't being thought about any more. "Go look for them, and let me know if anything happens."

"Sure thing. Are you okay?" he asked slowly, and another soft chuckle was his response.

"I'm fine Ethan, talk to you later."

* * *

Tommy put down the phone slowly, his eyes fixed on the man standing in his doorway. Neither said a word for a long time, and the only sounds were those of the forest around them, and the fridge quietly humming in the kitchen. With very deliberate movements, Tommy hooked his thumbs into his trouser pockets and smiled. The two of them were acting like a pair of wolves that had met in the wild and were taking each other's measure, and something would have to be done to break the stalemate.

Given what had happened the last time they had met up, Tommy decided it would be him. "I'm not evil," he said calmly, as he took a step towards the man. "I haven't tried to kill anyone, or bury a campsite in the mountains under a rockslide. You don't have to beat on me until Hayley can find a way to break the spell."

The two of them looked at each other again, and then Merrick's face slid into a grin as he shook his head and took a step forward, extending his hand. "I believe you Tommy. It's good to see you again."

"You too," he responded, taking the hand and shaking it. "I'm a little surprised though, I didn't think you knew where I lived."

"I didn't, I'm on the trail of something, and this was the first place I came across since I set off. I was going to ask the owner if I could replenish my water supplies when I saw you standing there." Tommy gestured for the man to come into the kitchen, and took the large water bottle from him and began to refill it.

"Not a problem Merrick, and if there's anything else I can do to help, I will." He handed the bottle back, and took a good look at a man he barely knew. They had met a little over a year and a half earlier, when he and Hayley had been on a camping trip in the nearby mountains, looking for a dino-egg they thought had ended up there. What they'd found had been an ancient evil that had been imprisoned for years, and that used him to release itself. Merrick had been wandering in the area, and had come to Hayley's aid and had fought Tommy while Hayley found a way to get rid of the evil presence.

It had been the first and only time he had met the man who had been the Lunar Wolf Ranger, of the Wild Force team, but it had left a lasting impression. Merrick had been less than impressed with the reality of him, not surprising since Cole had spent so much time crowing over meeting the 'Greatest Ranger' that reality was bound to come up short. Tommy on the other hand hadn't been thrilled to meet Merrick's choice of traveling companion, a three thousand year old bad guy named Zen-Aku.

However they had formed a tenuous friendship based on circumstance when Zen-Aku provided the final knowledge Hayley had needed to break the evil spell from him, and they had parted as friends if nothing else. As Tommy looked at the man, he realised how ragged he looked from his extended time in the wilderness, and resolved to bring up the idea of new clothes if possible, as what Merrick was wearing was frayed and beginning to fall apart. Walking back into the living room, he indicated for Merrick to put down his backpack. "We're sort of in the middle of a crisis here, but I'll help where I can."

Merrick's eyes narrowed, but his voice was merely curious. "This crisis, wouldn't have anything to do with the veil of shadows would it?"

"The veil of shadows?" Tommy asked, not familiar with the term. He had found that between his own knowledge, and what he had learned from Zen-Aku, Merrick had a tremendous store of knowledge regarding mystical and arcane things, and he somewhat regretted that he hadn't been able to convince the former Ranger to help with his project to archive Ranger knowledge. Merrick had explained that much of what he and Zen-Aku knew was too dangerous to ever risk becoming common knowledge.

"It's a personal term," Merrick explained, taking a sip of his water. "For the dark shadowed area that separates this life from the next, a boundary between planes." Tommy's eyes drifted shut, and he pinched the bridge of his nose, pushing up the glasses resting on them. With a sigh, he sat down, and gestured to the chair across from him. He had never been a big believer in coincidence, after all, when you became a Ranger, more weird things tended to happen to you on average. So the fact that Merrick had shown up, talking about a boundary between planes, not a full day after Kimberly had arrived, from what he now believed was an alternate reality, was more than merely coincidental to his mind.

"It may have something to do with that. Why don't you sit down while I grab us some drinks. This is going to take a while to explain."

* * *

They had barely gotten started when Tommy's bracer beeped. With anyone else he might have worried about showing off the communicator but Merrick had two admirable qualities that meant Tommy raised it to his mouth to speak into.

The first was the fact that as a former Ranger himself, he wouldn't be disturbed by the notion, and the second, and almost as importantly, Merrick wasn't one to tell anyone anything they didn't need to know. Tommy was absolutely sure of nothing else in his life besides the fact that any secret told to Merrick would be kept safe. Before he could speak though, a soft, hoarse voice spoke

"Dr. O?" Whatever Tommy had been about to say fled his mind, as the voice registered.

"Conner?" he replied immediately, concern clouding his voice. "Conner, where are you? What's wrong?" He didn't know if it was something in the boys voice, or the hesitancy with which he spoke, but he knew, for certain that something was very wrong. Without wasting a motion he got up fro where he was sitting and with his right hand tagged the dinosaur bone that was the release for the trapdoor to the basement. Three seconds later he was on his way down and quickly sat down in front of the computer.

"Not far," came the gasping voice. "Come quickly." Tommy's face drained of color as he heard his students voice and he activated the scanner. While it had never been very good at detecting non-active signals, from the outset Hayley had built transponders into the bracelets. He keyed in Conners' and his eyes widened as he realised they were less than a quarter mile from the house.

"I've got you on track Conner," he said as he rushed back up the stairs and out the door. Merrick, while unsure of what exactly was going on, or who exactly Conner was, knew enough to recognise the desperation in Tommy's voice, and followed.

As Tommy got outside, he looked around, orienting himself and set off. "Hang on Conner, we're coming," he said as broke into a full run, Merrick on his heels. When there was no response he began to panic, ever so slightly. "Conner? Conner are you there?"

There was no response and Tommy poured on even more speed as he crested a small rise in the forest. From his vantage point he spotted Conner, and Kimberly almost immediately, and fairly well leapt off the rise, scrambling down to where the two of them were a little faster than was actually safe. He crashed into the ground by Conner's head, and could instantly see what was causing the blood pool around his head. The gash along the back of his head thankfully didn't look deep, but it was fairly long, and he quickly stripped of his shirt, down to his T-shirt and pressed it against the injury.

Merrick came to a halt beside him, and checked Kimberly, even as Tommy put two fingers on Conner's neck. "Merrick," he hissed towards the other man. "Oh God, I can't feel a pulse."

tbc...


	12. Chapter 12

**Name: **Ascendancy  
**Chapter 12:** Between Asleep And Awake  
**Disclaimer: **I own nothing, I am nothing. I am one with the gestalt. Sue him  
**Archiving:** It's yours if you want it, just let me know where it's posted.  
**Summary:** Near death, Conner dreams, and begins to understand.  
**Shoutout:** To Jeannine, for writing a fic that stirred in me the desire to write again myself.  
**Shoutout: **_Jedi4Jesus_, thank you, that battle was hard to write. _The Real Vampire_, i'm glad you found my fic and are enjoying it. I'll try to keep the cliffhangers small ones. _Daniaryezel_, thank you for the praise on the battle sequence, i'm stunned speechless and immensely gratified by your comments._Ghostwriter_, glad you're still enjoying it :)

* * *

All men whilst they are awake are in one common world: but each of them, when he is asleep, is in a world of his own.  
- Plutarch

* * *

It was bright. That was the first thought to chase around Conner's head as he opened his eyes again. He stood up, and for a moment, he didn't remember why he thought it shouldn't be this easy to stand up, before the memories of the fight flooded back to him. He was unhurt though, he didn't feel any pain, and he looked himself over. He gingerly touched the tooth he felt jar loose and was surprised to find it solidly in place. He reached a hand round the back of his head, and was slightly surprised when it came away dry and clean.

Seeing nothing wrong with himself, he looked around where he was, and saw nothing but white. No contours, or shades, or borders. No object to reference or tell distance by, not even, as he glanced down, a shadow that he was casting. He looked around into what appeared to be a perfect, virgin white in all directions, shock and disbelief thundered through him.

"No way," he exclaimed into the white, in which he didn't even cast a shadow. "I'm dead?"

* * *

Merrick leaned over to where Tommy was becoming frantic, and held the back of his palm in front of the Conner's mouth. Tommy looked up at him in surprise, and began to ask what he was doing when Merrick forestalled by holding up his other hand, and closing his eyes. A second passed, then dark eyes under shaggy hair snapped open.

"He's still breathing Tommy, we need to get him to a hospital."

Merrick's tone brooked no debate, and for once, Tommy was to take orders, as his brain was numb from shock, he quickly picked up Conner, pressing the remains of his shirt to the back of his head to try and stem the bleeding as Merrick gently picked up Kimberly, and they set off, as fast as they dared given the obvious injuries to both their charges. As they moved, Tommy glanced at Merrick.

"How can he still be breathing without a heartbeat?" he demanded, a question that had been bothering him since Merrick had said it. He had been forced to take a basic first aid training when he became a teacher, and he knew where to check for a heartbeat.

"Just because you couldn't feel it, doesn't mean it isn't there," Merrick replied. "I could feel his breath on the back of my hand, so obviously he's not totally gone yet."

They arrived back at the house moments later, and Tommy gently put Conner down, keeping the improvised bandage in place while he reached for his phone, dialing 911 as fast as he could. As soon as the phone was picked up, he began speaking, giving his address and that he needed an ambulance urgently. He glanced at Merrick, wishing he could copy the other mans detachment and calm, but knowing that one of his students, his friends, was near death was more than he could handle easily.

His feelings for the alternate Kimberly were harder to resolve, as conflicting emotions raced through him. Part of him knew that he didn't know this woman, but the small part of his heart that never forgot his first love insisted that this was the same woman he had known in high school. It was absurd on the face of it, but he had come to learn that his feelings were as much a mystery to him now as they were when had been a teenager.

He tried to put the thoughts out of his head, and just concentrate on his breathing as he waited for help to arrive.

* * *

Boredom was what had eventually settled the matter for Conner. The white was so complete, without even a single thing to mark it, that he'd finally decided that if had to just wait around, he'd do it sitting down. He hadn't been able to see where the floor started, and he couldn't even scuff it with his shoe, but he could sit down on it, and so he did. Unfortunately, with nowhere to go, and nothing really to do, all he could do was sit and think.

Unfortunately, thinking wasn't something that Conner did often, or unless he had to. It wasn't that he was stupid, it was that he tended to overanalyse himself into indecision when he did. He was much more comfortable making a decision and sticking with it, or apologising if it turned out later to be the wrong decision, than to sit and wonder if he had made the right choice.

He sighed, right now he would be happy for the grim reaper himself to show up, just for someone to talk to. With an impudent snort, he wondered if Death would look anything like Ellen Muth. He sighed a few moments later, the brevity leaving him quickly. He stood up again, determined to do something, when he was overcome by an image. He saw the White Ranger, not Trent, but the original one, Dr. Oliver fighting a monster.

The vision left him feeling exhausted, and he took a deep breath. "Whoah," he exclaimed as another one washed over him. Similar to the last one, it showed the White Ranger standing with the other original Rangers striking a pose as something detonated behind them. "What's going on?"

Another vision flashed before his eyes, and he heard a voice overlaying it. A single word. "Understand."

* * *

Tommy watched, his panic only mildly abated as first Conner, and then Kimberly was loaded into ambulances by paramedics. Conner had been hooked up to what looked like a blood plasma IV even before he had been loaded up, and they were working with uncommon haste, even for emergency workers.

One of the paramedics quickly came over to Tommy. "Are you the parent of the boy?" he asked, and Tommy shook his head.

"I'm his teacher, can I come along?" he asked. The medic's expression wavered for a second, then he nodded sharply and guided Tommy to the back of one of the ambulances, as the first one closed its doors and started moving while the sirens wailed. Just before he got in, he turned to Merrick, who just made a motion for him to go.

"I'll take care of the house," he promised, as Tommy hopped into the Ambulance, and the door was closed. Having no way to help the paramedic working on Kimberly in the ambulance, he fished his cell phone out of his pocked, and found a quick dial for Kira. He didn't have to wait long, as the phone was picked up after a single ring.

"Kira," he said, not even giving her time to say hello. "Conner's been hurt, I need you to call Trent, while I call Ethan and meet me at the hospital."

"What?" she exclaimed. "Dr. O, what happened? What do you mean Conner's hurt? Are those ambulance sirens?" the girl demanded in rapid succession and Tommy could hardly blame her. He didn't even have answers for her, as to what had happened.

Obviously the Conner and Kimberly had been fighting, but what on earth could have set this off. He knew that Conner was angry with Kimberly, and Lord knows, Tommy couldn't blame him after she had put a knife to his throat twice in one day, but he hadn't thought he'd go so far as to have a knock-down drag-out fight with her. Even if he had, why hadn't he used his Super Dino mode to fight her? There was no way normal Ranger powers should be able to do this much damage against the Super Dino mode.

"I don't have any good answers yet Kira," he spoke softly into the phone. "Just get Trent, and come to the hospital. I've got to call Ethan and Hayley."

She obviously wanted to ask more, but to his surprise she acquiesced and the line went dead. Sighing softly he found Ethan's number and hit the dial.

* * *

Conner staggered in the white wilderness he inhabited as another vision assailed him. He ran a hand through his hair and resisted the urge to scratch his eyes out as he sat down, breathing hard. Each of the vision he'd seen had in some way featured the original White Ranger, running, fighting, using his weapons or Zords, his first appearance in the command center. Each one was like running a marathon, and he had been seeing them for what felt like hours, though a small part of him feared it had only been minutes.

Again soft voice, even now Conner was unsure if it was male or female, drifted through his mind. "Understand."

"Understand what?" he shouted. He didn't get an immediate response, but the visions stopped for which he was profoundly grateful. He didn't know if whatever, or whoever was doing this realised how physically exhausting this was, but he took full advantage of the respite.

Softer now, with a tone of someone who did not speak English easily, he heard the voice again. "Must see, understand." and suddenly he had an overwhelming feeling of focus and intent. He was shocked to realise that he wasn't feeling it himself, but whatever was in this place was making him feel it.

"All right," he said after a few seconds. "Show me what you need to, but start at the beginning, maybe that'll help." He was obviously not going to be able to leave wherever it was until he had understood what this thing was trying to show him, and maybe if he understood where it started, then he'd have a better idea.

To his surprise, what happened next wasn't like the other visions, but more like a massive virtual reality, as the white vanished to be replaced with solid ground, and walls, and a table. He looked around as the image was built up around him, and was stunned to see a massive greenish tube with face floating in it. He didn't know exactly where or when he was, but he knew that he was in the presence of the Power Ranger's original mentor, Zordon of Eltar.

Even as he got over his shock, he saw two other beings. The first, a small squat robot with a saucer for a head was frozen, as was the head, with its hands up by its head, as if worried, and on the table that had appeared was a familiar face. Dr. Oliver was lying there, eyes closed as if asleep and Conner moved towards him ever so slightly. Before he got a step forward, the voice sounded in his head again.

"See what you must, understand, report." it sounded pretty insistent, and Conner nodded.

"I'll try to understand," he promised the voice as the scene before him began to move.

* * *

It was late, Hayley reflected to herself as she flipped through a magazine at the hospital. Summoned by Kira's frantic call to Trent, the entire Dino-Thunder team had descended on the hospital to await news of Conner. Kimberly, as it turned out, wasn't seriously hurt other than a head injury which they treated for swelling. She hadn't woken up, and the doctors had been very careful not to make any promises about when specifically, she would.

Conner, unfortunately, was still being looked at. They hadn't been told what was wrong, other than that he was in very bad shape, and as time dragged on, it became obvious that he was in serious trouble. She glanced at the empty waiting room and sighed. The idea to send the others home, the kids having school the next day, and Tommy having to teach them had seemed like a good idea several hours ago, but now, as alone as she was, it didn't seem to be. She was the only one who didn't have to work the next few days, or go to school. She admitted to herself that the idea of not working was mostly due to doctors orders to not overstress herself, and she had been adamant that the others at least should try and get some sleep.

It hadn't been until she promised that she would call, no matter what time, or for whatever reason if any news came, that she had convinced them to leave, and even then only because Ethan had almost gotten himself hurt when he fell off a chair after dozing off. The mumbled protests and insistence that she call the moment she heard anything had followed them out of the hospital.

She got up, stretched her legs, and walked over to the coffee machine and got another drink. The coffee here was revolting compared to what she made herself, or at the Cafe, but it was full of caffeine, and that made up for a lot.

As she was walking back, someone in doctors clothing walked through the doors. Hayley turned instantly, all requirements for caffeine having fled her system as she took in his face.

"Are you here waiting for news on Conner McKnight?" he asked, the thin wispy beard making him look a little disheveled. There was no hesitancy in his tone, no indication that he was preparing her for a shock, and Hayley took that as a good sign as she nodded, stepping towards him.

"Hayley Jennings," she stuck out a hand and he shook it. "Conner's parents are out of town, visiting his twin brother in Blue Bay Harbor, and I'm a friend." The doctor accepted the explanation without comment and nodded towards the chairs. It was the truth as well. As much as Tommy hadn't wanted to make the call, he had known that he'd have to let Conner's parents know.

The palatable relief on his face when the answering machine informed them that they were gone for a while and to leave a message, or contact Conner on his mobile would have been funny under other circumstances. The reason why they were gone was speculation, but it wasn't an unreasonable one given the circumstances. What's more, by giving it straight away and without hesitation, it hopefully had gained some legitimacy, and the doctor wouldn't enquire too much further yet.

"I'm Alan Farthingdon, the on call doctor when Conner was brought in." He sat down on one of the chairs as Hayley did the same. "Currently his condition is stable, but precarious. We think we've relieved all the swelling to the back of his head, and we've taped the ribs. There was no apparent lung damage, or internal bleeding, but there was plenty of bruising. There's also some damage to his spine. All in all, I'd say he's lucky to be alive."

Hayley's face had drained of blood at his recitation, and she held her hand over her mouth as she fought for control. "I see," she finally said. "Thank you doctor. What's your prognosis?"

"Favorable, assuming he wakes up within the next 48 hours. Most of his injuries will heal without trouble, and the blood loss, while serious, isn't fatal. It'll take time to return to normal though, and I'd definitely suggest a diet rich in Vitamins and iron, but frankly I'm more worried that the impact to his head might have caused damage we're not aware of. We still know so little about the human brain even today," he added by way of explanation and Hayley nodded again.

"He's strong, he'll wake up," she said with a confidence she didn't feel.

The doctor got up, "Time will tell. Meanwhile, I need to get back my patients, but if there is anything else you need, please have the front desk page me."

He nodded and walked off as Hayley walked to the payphone area. She debated for a few seconds who to call first, and wondered if it mattered at all. Despite having gone home, he doubted any of them were sleeping. She decided on Tommy first, and dialed his number, only very slightly surprised when he picked up halfway through the first ring.

"Hayley?" The question was immediate and urgent.

"Hi Tommy," she replied. "Conner's stable, physically he'll recover as long as he wakes up soon."

There was a muted yell and several sounds of relief from the other end of the phone line, and she realised with a little guilt that none of them had even bothered to go home. They'd just all congregated at Tommy's place to wait for her to call.

"You know Tommy," she said, her tone conversational, despite the ache already developing from the talking so soon after her smoke inhalation. "While I know the school has a policy of letting a friend of an injured student stay with that student, it doesn't mean you can keep them all away from class, or yourself away from class."

He had the decency to at least sound contrite when he responded. "I know, but they were worried. I'll send them home, but I'm going to ask the Principal if at least one of them can stay with Conner." There was a shout over the phone, and Hayley quickly pulled the phone from her ear at the sound. When she gingerly listened again, she could almost hear Tommy smiling. "Make that, Kira will be staying with Conner tomorrow."

She nodded out of habit, despite there being no-one to see it. "Okay, I'll see her tomorrow morning then. For now, try and make sure she gets some sleep, and you get some as well." she ordered and he laughed.

"I will," he said. "Thanks Hayley."

* * *

"Ay ay ay ay ay Zordon," the little Robot said as Conner watched. "I know we need a new Ranger, but are you sure about this?"

"Yes Alpha," the giant face boomed. "The Mystic Gem will make a good power source for a new coin."

Alpha looked up at him, and Conner had no idea how it was possible, but he looked and sounded plaintive when he spoke "But it's dangerous."

"All avenues open to us are," Zordon responded. His voice echoing around the room. "Only Ninjor knew how to make coins without a seperate way to access the morphing grid."

Alpha walked over to a small ornate wooden box, and Conner joined him as he opened it. Inside the box was a gemstone, like the one Dr. O had received, but a cleaner, purer white. It didn't seem to have whatever shadow was in the gem at the moment.

"This gem can do that all right," Alpha muttered as he picked it up and walked to a piece of arcane machinery. Conner had no idea what the machinery was for, and given the complete lack of interest either being was showing to him walking around, he assumed that like in his first vision from the Gemstone, he could neither be seen nor heard.

"Indeed," Zordon said as the machine powered up with the gem inside. "In fact, the only reason to make a coin is because by itself, the power of the gem could overwhelm him. Now, proceed."

"Yes Zordon."

For a few seconds the machine thrummed away, and then a panel lifted, revealing a golden power coin. Conner sucked in his breath as a dozen little pieces of the visions suddenly came together, and he felt a certainty that he was beginning to understand what he was seeing.

"It is done Alpha," Zordon said, and Alpha took the coin, and placed it on Tommy's chest. Within a moment Tommy was encased in the armor of the White Ranger.

"But the Gem?" Alpha asked, as he looked at it. It now had the same smoky grey interior that the Gem Conner had first seen had.

"All humans have the capacity for evil," Zordon explained. "But Tommy was forced to give voice to that capacity through Rita's spell. While he holds that power coin, his past evils should not come back to haunt him."

"But it's no longer pure," Alpha responded, shaking the gem for emphasis

"True, and once we are done, you have to take it and hide it where it won't be found. We cannot risk it falling into anyone's hands in this state. Pure, it could only be dangerous to its wielder, as it is now, it would be dangerous to the entire world."

Conner's eyes widened. He still didn't know how the gem had come to be with them, but he knew now that he was right about what the gem represented, and what it was. With an urgency he had never felt before, he also knew what he had to do for Kimberly and for himself.

"Ay ay ay ay, Zordon." Alpha said, and the scene froze again. Conner glanced around and was surprised when he looked up to see a pair of eyes hiding behind a grill in the ceiling. Shrugging it off as unimportant, he looked around and waited for the voice, even as the image faded back into the same perfect white he had seen before.

"Understand?" it asked, and Conner nodded vigorously.

"Yes, I think I understand what the gem is now. I think I know why you wanted me to as well." He felt, rather than heard a response that made him feel happy, and he wondered why the emotions were so much clearer than the voice itself was. He didn't have an answer to that question, but he did have other answers, and he needed to tell the others.

Agreement flushed through him "Be of your world,"

"Of my world?" he asked confused, then his expression cleared. "You mean alive? Awake? Awesome, how do I do that?"

"Wake up Conner," a voice said, and suddenly it sounded like a voice he knew. Like Kira's voice. "Please just wake up?" He smiled, as the world began to lose it's whiteness and he felt himself being pulled back towards wakefulness

tbc...


	13. Chapter 13

**Name:** Ascendancy  
**Chapter 13:** Finding The Light  
**Disclaimer:** I own nothing, I am nothing. I am one with the gestalt. Sue him  
**Archiving:** It's yours if you want it, just let me know where it's posted.  
**Summary:** Conner wakes up, and completes his confrontation with Kimberly  
**Shoutout:** To Jeannine, for writing a fic that stirred in me the desire to write again myself.  
**Shoutout:** _Daniaryezel_, aww, shucks, thanks. The journey through Conner's head isn't quite finished._Jedi4Jesus_,thanks, glad you're still reading. _The Real Vampire_, He's not exactly okay, but he's getting there. _Ghostwriter_, thanks, more coming soon :)

* * *

Trust your own instinct. Your mistakes might as well be your own, instead of someone else's.  
- Billy Wilder

* * *

Opening his eyes hurt, in fact, Conner thought as he clawed his way back to the real world, there wasn't anything that didn't hurt right now. Cracking his lips slightly, he tried a smile, at the girl who was sitting next to him, looking away, at a monitor of some sort.

"Hey," he whispered by way of greeting. His throat feeling as dry as his lips did, he still managed to sound almost normal, and Kira's head snapped around fast enough to make him wince internally, but the sheer relief in her eyes chased away any worries.

"Oh my God, Conner you're awake," she said, not caring in the slightest that her eyes were misting up.

Conner licked his lips. "I am," he agreed as she took his left hand into both of hers. "And you're the prettiest sight I've ever seen."

Her cheeks reddened slightly, and her eyes narrowed. "That's just the near-death experience talking," she said tartly, but he could see the slight smile on her face and laughed softly.

"You know, that wasn't actually part of the plan," he said after a few seconds. She pulled herself closer, shaking her head.

"The plan?" she asked, real confusion evident in her voice. "Conner, what were you thinking?" Her tone definitely suggested that the answer might very well be 'nothing at all' as far as she was concerned, and he suddenly wondered what he was going to tell her. On the face of it, his idea was absurd, to pick a fight and hope that if he showed her that he wasn't weak in her philosophy that she'd listen to his.

As Kira watched him, he had a nasty feeling that she wouldn't except just any old answer or excuse, and what's more, as his friend she had a right to expect him to be honest with her. He finally sighed and closed his eyes for a second. "That you should confront bullies, beat them at their own game, then convince them to do it differently," he finally explained, eyes still closed, as he waited for the explosion.

When It didn't come, he finally opened his eyes, and saw her shaking her head, amusement written on her features rather than anger, and he raised his eyebrows in question.

"What?" she finally said, taking pity on his obvious question. "You couldn't have taken a page out of Ethan's book?

He smiled at that, "Don't think Kimberly would have reacted well to a computer football simulation," he said, then glanced around the room. Until now he'd been focusing exclusively on Kira and keeping his part of the conversation going, and he was surprised to find, as he looked around that he was in a private room. Reefside General obvious wasn't doing as much business as he thought it was if they could afford to put everyone in privates.

He tried to move, and realised that while the initial pain of waking up was receding, his head still hurt, as did his ribs and his arms, and that he had at least one IV drip hooked into his arm. He knew what he needed to do, but it was very obvious that he wouldn't be able to do it without Kira's help, as he needed to find Kimberly. "Speaking of everyone's favorite femme nearly fatal, where is she?"

Kira's smile vanished like it had never existed, and her eyes grew hard. "She's in one of the other hospital beds, different floor. Given that you two almost beat each other to death, and that she hasn't woken up yet, the doctors felt it would be a good idea to have you two separated.

"I need to see her," he said, and she shook her head.

"What? No, Conner, you can barely move. You can't go up there and pick another fight." At any other time he would have found her anger in his defense amusing, but now wasn't another time. He pushed himself up as far as he could, and she put her hands on his shoulders as if to push him down. Their eyes locked as they both realised that he wasn't strong enough to stop her from pushing him back onto the bed.

"Kira," he said, pleading with everything he had. "I have to end this, and you're right, I can barely move. I can't do this without you."

"Conner," she warned, knowing where he was about to go, but he didn't give her time to finish her objection.

"Kira, look at me, do you trust me?" he asked.

"Unfair question," she responded automatically. but his eyes never wavered.

"No it isn't, do you trust my judgement?" he asked again, He knew he was putting her in an uncomfortable position, but he needed her help, and the only way to get it was to be completely honest. Well hidden behind his intent gaze, part of him smiled secretly. Maybe not total honesty, but at the very least total sincerity. "Well?" he asked, nudging her in the hip, which was about at bed height.

She rolled her eyes. "Most of the time," she admitted, letting him go and crossing her arms.

"Then trust me now. I need to do this, help me."

For maybe a full minute Kira said nothing, and Conner watched as a number of expressions flitted across her face. She glanced at the phone on the desk and he knew she was debating if she should call someone, probably Dr. O, first. Finally, she closed her eyes, and sighed.

"Your insane," she informed him with feeling. "And an idiot, but right now, you're my insane idiot, and if you really want to do this, i guess I'd better do what I can to make it as easy as possible," she finished in a resigned tone of voice. He reached out and grabbed one of her hands, holding it for a second and enjoying the feel of it in his hands.

"Thank you," he told her honestly, and she snorted as she walked to the door, where a foldout wheelchair was standing next to the desk. She grabbed it, opened it out with a snap, and walked back to the bed.

"Don't thank me Conner," she said as she began to remove the IV in his arm. Conner decided that questions as to where she learned to do that could wait till later, as she put an arm around his shoulder, and another one bracing his taped up ribs and slowly maneuvered him into the chair. That done, she looked him straight in the eye. "When you're better, I'm going to rip a strip off you for this stupid stunt, and beat you with it."

He chuckled at that, and grabbed his ribs in pain as the motion upset them. Kira's look of concern was instantly back, but he waved it off. "Thanks for caring enough to be willing to threaten me."

"Yeah, well," she said with a grin and a blush. "Like I said, you're an insane idiot, but you're my friend too, and you know what they say about friends," she said. Then to his questioning expression she rolled her eyes." A good friend will tell your dad that you've been arrested, a really good friend will bail you out herself," she explained, and watched his face spread in a wide grin.

"And a true friend?" he asked.

"A true friend will be sitting next to you in the cell saying 'Dude, that was fun.'"

Conner laughed delightedly at that, even though every laugh brought a pained expression to his face. "That's priceless Kira," he finally said. "Thank you, for being a true friend."

* * *

Hayley chewed on the end of a pen, a habit that went back years to her college time, and pondered the imponderable in front of her. Theories on time and reality were almost inherently unproveable, and thus remained the province of fringe science. She had never paid any great attention to the various multiverse theories, or the so-called decision tree theories that suggested that every choice span out into it's own new universe, for the simple reason that no technology existed to test the theory.

And now she was being asked to invent exactly that technology. Hayley had few illusions about her skills or intellect, and she didn't think, but knew that she was brilliant. It wasn't arrogance, in her opinion, to know your own strengths and be proud of them, and it was something she'd always encouraged in her friends. Even without his Ranger powers, Tommy was a brilliant martial artist, a black belt in several different styles of Karate, and a immensely experienced at using his skills, and yet he rarely spoke of his abilities, and when he did, he did so in a depreciating fashion.

She supposed it was a matter of personal style more than anything else, but she couldn't help but think that if he just admitted what everyone knew, then maybe he wouldn't be so depreciating about his skills. She honestly believed that no one would consider it an act of arrogance either. She grinned to herself, even if they did, no one in his right mind would say it to his face.

She leaned her head back and scrubbed an arm across her eyes, and tried to think. She knew from various discussions that the original transfer had happened, when the gem absorbed a huge amount of energy from the inviso-portal, and had supercharged their own gem, but she had no idea what had happened on the other side of the event. What's more, with this alternate Kimberly comatose, she wasn't likely to get any answers soon either. She had subjected their own gem to all sorts of scans, and had a few ideas on how to go, but what she really needed was a fresh perspective on inter-dimensional travel, unfortunately for her, she didn't know anyone with that experience.

The sound of feet on wood brought her out of her consideration, and she looked at the staircase where Merrick had just walked down carrying a small pitcher of water and a plate of sandwiches, which he put down in front of her. She gave him a tired, but grateful smile, and dug in much to his amusement. She considered the man as she munched, and wondered at their ability to work well together. He wasn't the kind of person that she would normally think of when considering a research partner, but he had an uncanny ability to know what direction her thoughts were going. After all, when they'd worked together to free Tommy during the whole Dorani possession of Tommy affair, they'd had the same sort of working relationship.

"What's on your mind Hayley?" he asked, and she shrugged.

"Parallel dimensions. I don't know anything about them, and was hoping to pick your brains," she responded after swallowing a bite. He smiled at her, and nodded.

"I'll tell you what I know, but I never knew all that much about the topic. It was Zen-Aku's specialty."

"Unfortunately, he's dead according to you," she responded, keeping her tone as conversational as she could. He either missed the tension she couldn't quite erase, or chose to ignore it, she didn't know which as

he poured in some water into a pair of glasses that had already been down there from an earlier food run. Unlike her, he was mostly non-technical, and certainly not capable of figuring out the mechanical side of what she was doing. So, after getting the story from her, he had contented himself with making sure she had plenty of food and drink while she tried to figure it out.

He nodded to her, "He is, for now at least." he reached to his ever-present backpack, and withdrew something from it. "But there is a way to bring him back, and ask him what he knows," Merrick said as he placed the mask on the desk between them, and Hayley tried, and failed to suppress a shudder that ran through her. There was no way he could have missed that, but he said nothing.

"No Merrick, not unless there is no other choice," she said softly, almost reaching out to push the mask back towards him, but stopping at the last moment. He arched his eyebrows in question.

"I'm surprised," he admitted. "I didn't think you shared Tommy's prejudices towards him."

She snorted. "Don't mistake abject terror for prejudice Merrick. Tommy doesn't like Zen-Aku because he's a former minion of evil, I don't like him because he scares me to death."

"He's been a loyal ally these last two years, and he did risk himself to help you both when Dorani took control of Tommy," he reminded gently, and she pursed her lips. It was the annoying thing that Merrick was right about that.

"Yes, but he was a Duke Org before that, and he did cause you to be imprisoned for thousands of years," she pointed out, and he sighed.

"He did, but that was long ago, and I've forgiven him that. He hasn't played me false since we began to wander together, and I know he has vast amounts of information on the veil between worlds. Some of it may be useful."

"Maybe," she allowed. "But for now, let's find out what you know, and if it becomes necessary, then yes, we'll ask Zen-Aku for help, but only if it becomes necessary." The words were soft, but Merrick acknowledged the ultimatum at their core, and nodded.

"As you wish, I'll only wear the mask as a last resort. For now though, ask your questions, and I'll try and answer them."

She smiled, a bit more naturally now. "All right, first of all, how does energy and matter transfer through this veil?"

* * *

Kira was obviously more aware of the comings and goings of the hospital than he was, Conner noted as she walked him through the wing towards the elevators. She had several times turned him and herself away from various medical personal walking about, and he wondered just what they thought had happened between him and Kimberly. Reasons aside, they probably knew the physical side of it fairly well, which was probably why she was doing it. After all, they wouldn't want two people who had beat each other to bloody pulps to be in the same room together.

She turned the wheelchair into an alcove, and leaned over, making sure her body covered the visual angle towards his face, as she pretended to fuss over his shoulder, while two blue clad policemen walked by. After they passed, she glanced up, and started moving again. He'd kept silent so far to save his strength, but he found his curiosity growing.

"What's with the guards?" he finally asked. "There's a lot more cops than I was expecting."

Kira shrugged behind him as she pushed. "They think it's suspicious that Dr. O's name came up connected to a dangerous smoke inhalation, and two severe beatings in one week," she explained. "They're worried there may be something connecting them, or that he might be dangerous."

"Damn," Conner swore. "Didn't think of that." It was true, and he should have thought of it as soon as he realised where he was. Not only was he one of Dr. O's students, but for police and ambulance to be called twice in one week would probably have raised flags even without the fact that he was one of the man's students. The fact that Kimberly had no records, except for the regular Kimberly's records which probably placed her a long way away didn't help him calm down any.

"You didn't think of a lot of things," Kira said, her voice stern, and he rolled his own eyes, even as they got into the elevator and went up a floor. There seemed to be a lot less traffic here, and she quickly guided

the chair to a specific room, and pushed him in.

"Is this the room?" he asked, and she nodded as she pushed the wheelchair up to the bed. He reached out a single finger, and traced a line around her throat, looking for her necklace that contained a duplicate of their gemstone, and suddenly worried when it wasn't there. He checked again, but she wasn't wearing it, and he wondered what he'd do if the police or doctors had confiscated it.

He took a good look at Kimberly and grimaced. They might both have been unconscious, but she definitely seemed to have come of the fight the better of the two. She was on an IV drip similar to his, but other than that she only had a couple of bandages around her head. He'd been nursing his own wounds, including a tooth that persistently felt loose, but she didn't look very badly hurt. He thought about her gemstone, and then suddenly realised that someone in the room might know where it was.

"Her necklace," he said turning to Kira. "Do you know where it ended up?" He had obviously failed to keep the agitation out of his voice, because she put a soothing hand on his shoulder.

"Easy Conner, all the personals are in the drawer next to the bed, just like your stuff," she said, pulling a pair of keys out of her pocket and trying first one, then the other until the desk lock opened with a click. She opened the drawer and pulled out the necklace, making very sure not to touch the gemstone itself.

"You've got a key?" Conner asked in surprise and she nodded.

"Actually, Hayley had the key, and yours too, but since I'm here, and she's not," she shrugged and passed the chain of the gemstone to him.

He took the chain from her, and placed the gemstone in his hand, it's flat back against his palm, and watched it begin to glow softly. He wasn't wearing his Dino-bracelet, and made a note to pick it up from the room, but he noticed that Kira's had begun to glow, and she noticed it as well. He then reached over, ignoring the ache in his arms, and took her left hand into his right, so that they were both touching the gemstone, and closed his eyes, concentrating.

For almost a minute he didn't move, focussing all his thoughts on the woman in front of him, and what he'd learned while he was getting the White Ranger visions, before his eyes snapped open. Kira was surprised to see real anger on his face, as if he had just been insulted.

"Come on Kimberly, I know you're in there. Wake up," he demanded of the unconscious woman, and he actually seemed like he wanted to get up and shake her.

"Conner?" she asked nervously, but he didn't seem to hear her. He just leaned in close to her face, his expression thunderous.

"Don't run away again. You're better than this. Dammit wake up, don't be a coward," he almost shouted into her face. Kira was about to intervene, when Kimberly's eyes snapped open, blazing with anger of her own. Obviously with tremendous effort, she forced her free arm towards him, in what was obviously supposed to be a threatening gesture, while releasing his hand that was touching the gemstone.

"I'll go a round with you any day Conner McKnight," she spat at him.

Conner merely gave her a lazy grin. "Yeah, I'm sure you would, but I'm not the one you're mad at," he said with supreme confidence and something in Kimberly's eyes changed.

"Rita, Zedd," she said, punctuating each name with silence, and with enough venom to make them insults rather than names, and Conner nodded.

"Rita and Zedd," he agreed. "So what are you going to do about it?"

She laughed mirthlessly. "Do, Conner? I'm a Power Ranger, I'm going to do what we always do. I'm going to change the world."

Conner's face split into a grin. "Welcome back," he announced, holding out the gemstone to her. She reached to take it from him, but as soon as she touched it, something happened. From Kira's perspective, a wave of something traveled out from the gem, slow enough for her to see it, but she didn't feel anything as it passed over her.

That's when she saw it. For one moment, as they both touched the gem, a brilliant white light shot out from it, and Kimberly was sheathed in her gray costume, that faded to white and changed ever so slightly. Kira's eyes widened, but not nearly as much as when she glanced at Conner and saw that he was also coated in a Ranger costume, but not his usual one. She could only see the back of it, but it looked unbroken by the usual lines, triangles and other imagery on a ranger costume.

It lasted a moment, maybe two, and the light faded. As her eyes adjusted, Kira saw that the gemstone no longer had a dark center. The hazy gray smoke had vanished, and all that was left was a gemstone, which as pure and brilliantly white. She looked at Kimberly and Conner, and was surprised to see they both looked better. Not well, exactly, but less hurt in any case.

Taking a short step forward to where Conner and Kimberly were still staring at each other she cleared her throat. "Guys, what just happened here?"

The reaction was almost comic, as they both turned to look at her in surprise, as if her comment reminded them both that she was in the room, and Kira giggled. Se stopped almost instantly, and Kimberly and Conner exchanged a glance.

They both looked serious enough, but after a second, Conner's cheeks dimpled, and he snickered, and within a moment he was howling with laughter, and so was Kimberly.

Kira said nothing for a few moments, but when neither of them looked to be recovering from their sudden burst of hilarity, she sighed. "Okay you two, will one of you explain what's going on?"

Conner managed to get himself somewhat under control and nodded. "Sure Kira," he said, and the smile he gave her looked a lot less painful. "Give the others a call, and I'll explain it to all of you at once."

Tbc….


	14. Chapter 14

**Name:** Ascendancy  
**Chapter 14:** Flipside  
**Disclaimer:** I own nothing, I am nothing. I am one with the gestalt. Sue him  
**Archiving:** It's yours if you want it, just let me know where it's posted.  
**Summary:** Mesogog muses, and begins the first phase of his new plan to change the world.  
**Shoutout:** To Jeannine, for writing a fic that stirred in me the desire to write again myself.

* * *

Nothing is more miserable than man.  
- Homer, Iliad

* * *

Mesogog was not pleased. His reptilian features were not designed to display emotions the way humans understood the term, for the simple reason that his face was not terribly expressive. Reptiles used an entirely different form of physical expression, and he was, he knew, ill-suited for human type communications. He had found that when dealing with humans, even semi-loyal cyborg henchmen, tone of voice and especially loudness worked, as he couldn't frown or gain a thunderous expression. He growled as he considered Elsa's impudence to him earlier, as he stepped out of the fortress and onto the island proper. 

He felt a deep sense of satisfaction as he looked out over the verdant green of his island paradise, and heard the sounds of animals this world had not seen since the dawn of time. It was here, in his private area, separated from the island at large, where even his most loyal and brave troops wouldn't think to enter uninvited, that he came to think, and to plan the future of the world of man. Here, where grass, and trees, and jungles and ancient birds and dinosaurs roamed, that he could ignore the cold steel of the fortress he had built, and the technology he needed.

Despite what he had said, it was galling to know that he couldn't reclaim the stewardship of the world without technology, but it was an irritation he was willing to endure. He needed technology to gain the Dino-Gems to power the change he was planning. When fully active, the wave from his Mesozoicannon would sweep across the world brushing away human civilization as it went. Their cities would crumble, their roads and cars and technologies scatter to dust, and then, the jungles and forests of the old world would begin to re-appear.

Mankind would never know what had happened, even as the wave traveled the planet. It would take, he estimated, a day to blanket the continent his island wasn't far from, what the humans called 'North America' with the Mesozoicannon weapon, and another day for it to travel fully around the world. A chill wind blew, and he enjoyed the sensation on his skin as he contemplated the world.

A movement drew his eyes to the side, and he saw the mighty bipedal Velociraptor pad out of the underbrush, and towards where he was standing. It lowered it's head to him, and gave a crackling sound of appreciation as Mesogog ran a claw over it's head. The dinosaurs recognised him, even if mankind did not, as the one who would save the world. Right now, his dinosaur pets could only live while he did, dependant on his life until the Mesozoicannon weapon changed the face of the planet, but it was enough. This was why he fought those that tried to stop his vision. This creature, dead since the time a memory of Anton Mercer identified as the Cretaceous period now stood before him.

He knew that the human media, the Power Rangers, even Anton Mercer considered him evil, and it frustrated him. Mankind had been the dominant species of the world for millennia untold, and they had failed as stewards of the planet. Evolution demanded that those designs that failed would be discontinued, to make way for more adaptable, better species, and he was the vanguard of that change, no matter what anyone else said.

It as perhaps the most fundamental difference of intent that he had with Elsa, and the one they clashed over most often. In fact, her earlier comments, which had lead to an unfortunate for her, use of his mental powers, had been about that topic. She continued to see the defeat of the Power Rangers as a goal in and of itself, rather than as a means to an end. She seemed incapable of grasping the notion that he cared not at all about the Rangers beyond the fact that they would never surrender their Dino-Gems to him voluntarily, and that he needed those gems to make the Mesozoicannon work.

"Soon," he hissed to the dinosaur still standing near him. "Soon, this world will be yours again, to live, and run and hunt in. The natural order will be restored, those that live in the cities, and towns of this world will become your rightful prey." The Raptor bounded off again, and Mesogog clasped his clawed hands behind his back. Soon he would be able to shed this human guise, and find a way to deal with Anton Mercer for good.

He was distracted by sunlight reflecting off a metallic glint in the ocean, and had he been capable of smiling, he would have. Zeltrax was returning, and assuming that he hadn't failed, he would be able to advance to the next step of his plan. Of course, the chance that Zeltrax had failed was fairly high, and if he had, then he would take the cyborg as the first test of his new device.

He walked back inside from his private sanctuary, and into the throne room to find Elsa already waiting for him. "Report," he ordered, and she complied.

"Zeltrax is just docking the boat now. He has a captive, for your tests. Additionally, the power source that Zeltrax tried to get from the Rangers a few days ago seems to be two distinct power sources. Their energy signatures are almost identical, but we are definitely tracking two of them." The report was given to be as concise, but as complete as possible and Mesogog nodded his head. It was a very human gesture, but it seemed to re-assure Elsa that this time, she wouldn't have his mental powers scrambling his brain and he stalked to his throne and sat down in it.

"And the other project?" he asked, his tone sounding bored, though he was anything but that. If the adjustments to the life force extractor were a way of helping him fight the Rangers, his new device should be enough to finish several of them off. Once their team was shattered, with human grief making them irrational, and prone to mistakes, then they would fall to his troops, and if not to them, he could always go after them himself.

"My lord, it is nearing completion. We estimate another week to fully assemble it, and test it," she looked ever so slightly nervous. "Sir, this device relies on you being able to use an inviso-portal to escape, and the portal network is still killing anything that is being sent through it. What will you do if the network doesn't stabilise?"

"It will," he replied confidently. "I can already begin to feel it re-aligning. Whatever the Rangers did, has not been permanent, and they will soon pay for their folly. Just make sure the device is ready and will work the way I intend it to." He was about to say something else, when the door opened to admit Zeltrax, dragging a human woman. He hissed as he saw her, the reptile in him repulsed at what he was seeing.

For human standards, he supposed that she was pretty enough. Young, a human teenager with long dark hair, and a terrified expression on her face. She was wearing jeans and a t-shirt, and appeared to have a tattoo across her neck which vanished into her top. Mesogog ignored all of that, assigning no value to a single human. He looked at his cyborg henchman. "Were you seen?" he asked, and Zeltrax shook his head.

"No my lord, and the Rangers never saw me. I took this one from an outlying area of the town, the suburbs north of the city."

"Good," he hissed, stepping off his throne, and approaching the girl. She had been mewling ever since Zeltrax had dragged her in, but now had a pale, wide-eyed look in her eyes as he stepped close to her. He reached out a clawed hand, and ran a single talon down her cheek, watching her flinch and shake as he did. "Are you frightened?" he asked.

"Y...yes," she stammered as she looked at him, and he turned from her.

"Don't be," he said. "I have given you a great honor. You will be the first human to give their life, for the future of this world."

"No," she shouted as his meaning sunk home. "Please, God, let me go. I haven't done anything to you," she begged and struggled as Zeltrax once more dragged her around, and then lifted her onto the life-force extractor. Tears running down her face, she continued to shout her pleas at the three beings in the room, but none seemed at all interested, until finally Mesogog came back over to her.

"Don't do this, please, I have a life, a boyfriend," she desperately tried to think of something that might appeal to the thing standing over her, but he merely ran a claw down the side of her face again, and she stilled.

"No my dear," he said with a soft growl. "You had those things." She screamed as he stepped back and pressed his palm down on the activation switch. A pale ray lanced down from the device and touched her chest, and the screams changed. They stopped being shouted words, and merely became sound, as the life force extractor forcibly took her life from her. She screamed as loudly as capable as fire raced through her body, and Mesogog would have narrowed his eyes, had he been capable when he saw Elsa's reaction.

The screams were animal sounds of pain and suffering, not even remotely human anymore which was regrettable, but necessary. What did surprise him was that Elsa seemed to be having a hard time with them as well. It was obvious that some of her humanity remained, despite her implants and the mental conditioning he had subjected her to, and he resolved to do something about that. Elsa, if she was truly disturbed by this event, was displaying a weakness that would make her a liability, maybe even a threat at some point.

The screaming stopped suddenly, and the drained husk of the woman vanished from the table, as the device that had been attached to the extractor began to hum and glow as it did it's work. Originally, the extractor had been designed to drain the life force of people to power the gems that ran his Mesozoicannon, but he had learnt quickly that he would have to drain hundreds of thousands to even power a partial Mesozoic Wave, so he had found a different way to extract power from things like the Dino-Gems.

The extractor was now merely a way of eliminating enemies in a way that sent an undeniable message to those who saw it's use. Even Elsa would not risk that happening to her, and he stepped towards the machine, and opened the hatch as it stopped humming. From it, he removed a beaker, containing a green liquid. He didn't have a name for it, he wouldn't need one either. It was a color many humans might consider unpleasant, even putrid, but he found the swirling greens to be a very comforting shade of color.

"Sir?" Elsa asked, her hesitancy obvious. "I thought you were draining her for use with the gems and the cannon?"

"You thought wrong," Mesogog hissed as he drained the beaker and put it back in the machine. For a few seconds nothing happened, and then he roared. Not one of anger or pain, but one of pleasure. He felt a power unlike anything he had ever felt rushing through him as the solution did it's job.

He had known for a long time how to simply apply power to beings. The hydro-regenerator, which allowed his minions to grow to huge sizes, was one such device, but what was happening now was subtler, and probably more powerful. His device targeted only the part of him that was dinosaur, not the part of him that was human. Until the world changed, he couldn't fully cast off his human side, but neither did he have to suffer its frailties. The power coursed through him, the concentrated life force of a single human giving power to his dinosaur side, and he felt the physical change as well.

His body became more accented, his lines becoming cleaner and more reptilian, and his claws turned a dark black. His skin stretched as his muscles became more powerful, and he felt the power charging his organs as well. His eyesight gained even more clarity, and even his sense of taste and smell seemed to be enhanced. He felt more powerful than he had ever felt before, strong enough, he realized, to fight the Rangers directly. First though, he needed a test.

"Elsa," he spoke, and his voice was far deeper, and more pronounced than before. "Make me a monster."

"Yes my lord," she said quickly and turned away from him, trotting over to the geno-randomiser. She tapped in the commands with haste, not wanting to keep Mesogog waiting at all, and before too much longer, a beast had appeared. It appeared to be made up of spare gardening parts, Mesogog noted with faint disgust. It had large rakes for legs, and its torso appeared to be a garbage bag.

"My lord," Elsa announced. "This is-"

"I don't care what its name is," he interrupted. "Follow me."

With Zeltrax, Elsa and the monster in tow, Mesogog lead them through the fortress till they reached one of the many open ground accesses. This one, similar to his private area, was open, and had enough room to maneuver. He waited until his minions were standing outside as well, and turned to the monster.

"You have one chance to attack me," he informed it, and anger smoldered in him when it turned a questioning look to Elsa. "Now!" Mesogog thundered, and the monster snapped his head back to it.

It leapt forward, a scythe appearing in place of it's wrist, and slashing at the mutant, who simply stood there, hands clasped behind his back. The blow struck home, causing sparks to erupt from Mesogog's chest-armor, but other than that, he didn't react, not even to stagger backwards.

Then, with one arm, he reached forward and punched the monster. The effect was immense, as the beast went flying backwards over fifteen feet, smashing into the wall. Before it had even fully fallen down, Mesogog leapt forward, raking the monster with his dark claws, leaving long black burns and gashes across the monsters chest. He would have laughed at the absurdity, the simplicity of what he was doing. By using human energy, he might not be able to power a device to change the world, but he could change himself. His dinosaur side was fully in ascendance, and he knew, in a deep sense, that he was now easily as powerful as any of the Rangers.

It fell forward, exploding as it did, and Mesogog laughed, his face lit by the fire of the monsters remains, and he saw both Elsa and Zeltrax take a slight step backwards.

"Yes, this will do, nicely."

Tbc...


	15. Chapter 15

**Name:** Ascendancy  
**Chapter 15:** The Secret Of The Gemstone  
**Disclaimer:** I own nothing, I am nothing. I am one with the gestalt. Sue him  
**Archives:** Sure, just let me know where  
**Summary:** Conner explains what the gemstone is, and Anton Mercer tries to warn Trent.  
**Shoutout:** To Jeannine, for writing a fic that stirred in me the desire to write again myself.  
**Shoutout: **_The Real Vampire_, here's the next part, no cruelty intended. _Ghostwriter_, glad you enjoyed it. _C2_, I try not to keep people waiting, the green liquid was my own idea (as far as I know at least) but it seemed to me that if a dinosaur/lizard/thing would have a power up potion, it would be green. _Jenna Summers_, thank you. Here's the next part.

* * *

Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear  
- Mark Twain

* * *

"And if I ever see you do anything that recklessly stupid again, you'll wish I'd been the one beating on you. Am I clear?"

Conner's eyes were drawn from Dr. O's tirade when he noticed Hayley quietly slipping into the room. He raised his eyebrows in a question, and she nodded ever so slightly. Before he had a chance to look back, his teacher cleared his throat pointedly.

It had been four hours, more or less since he woken up, and things had been lively. The doctors had been both confused and amazed at both his and Kimberly's recovery. In fact, they had wanted to keep both of them for observation, despite the fact that they could probably both be released. The Police had been just as surprised, but even more suspicious because without the injuries of an actual beating there was very little they could claim to be investigating besides the youths themselves.

As soon as school had ended, Kira had called Dr. O, who let Ethan and Trent know, and the three of them had come to the hospital without delay. At Conner's request, she'd then called Hayley, to whom Conner had spoken at some length, before asking her to bring something to the meeting where he would explain everything.

Tommy, Ethan and Trent and arrived first, to find Kimberly and Conner in the same room without trying to tear each other to pieces, and Dr. O had promptly thrown a fit of his own. The teens and Kimberly had spent the last fifteen minutes listening to a no-repeat tirade from the teacher on their irresponsibility. Conner was okay with that, after all, the idea had been only barely this side of sane to start of with.

"I do get it Dr. O," he said. "And you really don't have to worry. I'm not going to do anything like that again, and I don't think Kimberly is either." He glanced at the woman still in the bed from where he was sitting in the wheelchair and she nodded. He was probably well enough to stand, but he was still tired from the ordeal and the events that followed, and he had a feeling he'd need all his strength for the explanation.

"All right," Tommy allowed with an angry sigh. "I hope you've got one heck of an explanation for this."

Kimberly and Conner looked at each other and she shrugged. "It's your show Conner."

He bobbed his head and looked back at his teacher. "I do have an explanation," he replied. "And now that Hayley's here, I can explain it to you." He turned to the redhead and held out a hand. "You bring it?"

She nodded, grabbing the small wooden box from her bag, then held it out to him, and hesitated. "Conner, are you sure about this. So far, everyone besides me who has touched this thing, including you, hasn't enjoyed the experience."

"True," he agreed. "But all of that was before Kimberly arrived here." He took the box from Hayley and opened it, lifting out the gemstone without any apparent ill effect and Hayley let out a breath she hadn't realised she'd been holding.

"When I was unconscious," Conner began. "I kept seeing these images flashes, and always of the White Ranger." At people's surprised glanced towards Trent, he chuckled. "Not that White Ranger, the original one."

All the glances shifted towards the teacher whose eyes remained fixed on Conner. "What's the connection between me and that gem?" Tommy finally asked, and Conner gave him a grin.

"It's the source of the White Ranger Power Coin of course." He motioned for the various standing people to sit down as he settled himself into the wheelchair for a long explanation. He was fairly sure that what he was about to say was accurate, unfortunately it was always possible he had some of the specifics wrong. Still, it felt right, on a level he couldn't consciously explain, he knew that he was right.

"Hayley," he asked. "How do the morphers turn us into Power Rangers?"

The question was innocent enough, but Hayley could recognise a leading question when she heard one. However, it was unlikely that everyone here knew about how everything worked. Tommy knew, after all they had spent a long time building the Dino-Thunder morphers, and to learn how to make morphers in the first place, she'd had to take one apart. Tommy still had his Zeoniser, which had been returned to him after the team had upgraded to a new power source, and broken though they were, he also still had both his Dragonzord morpher, and the White Ranger morpher.

It had taken a lot of convincing, but she had finally been able to convince him to let her take them apart to learn how they worked, and in the course of that, she had learnt a huge amount about how the devices interacted with their power sources, and with the Morphing grid itself. She'd also made a point of including him in all of her skull-sessions so that besides her, he probably knew more about the Morphing Grid than anyone on earth.

"The morphers don't," she said succinctly. "What the morphers do, is use energy from a power source, in this case your Dino-Gems, to create a connection to the morphing grid. The Grid then supplies the power back to the morphers, which activates the stored molecular designs for your costumes and weapons. In and of themselves, the morphers can't do anything without a power source to punch a hole to the Morphing Grid."

Various people nodded in understanding, some more so than others. Only Conner however, looked like he was pleased with the explanation, and expecting nothing else. Drawing everyone's attention back to him, he continued. "Exactly. The original coins that the first generation of Rangers used were like the Dino-gems. They didn't have a great deal of power in and of themselves, but they were essential for making the connection to the Morphing Grid through the morphers." Conner then held up the gem. "This thing was used to create the White Power coin, a tiny piece of its power was spun off into a coin to power your morpher."

"How do you know that?" Tommy asked. There was no accusation in his voice, only intense curiosity, and to Conner's surprise, a tiny bit of dread. He looked at his teacher, took in the look in his eyes, the set of his shoulders, and suddenly wondered if there wasn't more to this story than even he knew. Whatever Dr. O. was thinking, it obviously wasn't good.

"I saw it," Conner he finally answered. "I don't know how, or why, but I was seeing the events as they happened, I saw you on a lab table somewhere in the original command center, and saw Zordon create the White Ranger coin with Alpha. I think that the gem itself was showing me these images."

"Amazing," Ethan said as he looked at the little gem with awe. Suddenly his eyes narrowed, and he looked at Conner. "But why not just use the gem itself to power the morpher, why use a coin?"

"Because," Tommy said, his voice growing angrier with the moment, as he pieced together part of a conversation he had with Zordon right after he had been given the White Ranger Powers. "The gemstone, isn't just a power source to create a connection to the Morphing Grid. It's a direct conduit to it, isn't it?"

Conner nodded, and for a second the entire room was silent. "Yes, it is, and now it's no longer corrupted, it's power has been freed and linked to me."

Ever since he had realised what the gemstone was, his mind had been working at top speed. He had totally forgotten during Conner's explanation that the young man had neatly sidestepped the actual explanation he had wanted, about what he was thinking picking a fight with Kimberly and nearly beating each other to death. However this new information had chased that query straight out of his head.

He had once told Conner that there was a whole world of power waiting for him beyond the Triassic powers, but this wasn't what he had in mind. In fact, a direct conduit to the Morphing Grid could be both immensely powerful, and incredibly dangerous. The energy alone could easily overwhelm a single person, burn them out from the inside as the power consumed him.

He debated for a moment suggesting that they lock the gem away, but dismissed the idea. It was never that easy to deal with new powers, and he knew that better than most. Conner had always risen to new challenges, and he was sure that Conner could rise to this one as well. The problem of course was that if Conner now had access to the full power of the Grid, then he would be a very tempting goal for Mesogog. Sitting up from his chair, he looked Conner straight in the eyes.

"Then you've just become Mesogog's number one target."

Conner looked back, and shrugged. "I know."

* * *

Mesogog sat in his chamber, enjoying the power that was coursing through him. Elsa had created two more monsters for him, to test his new powers on, and they had proven to be everything he could have hoped for. He was fast, strong beyond even his own expectations, and almost invulnerable, and it was an intoxicating feeling. The monsters had tried, and yet he had torn them to pieces as if they were nothing. He was sure that he was now strong enough to battle the Rangers, even without his new weapon, but he would wait. He had been working toward his goal for years now, a little longer wouldn't hurt.

The portal network had finally settled down again, much as he had predicted it would, and the latest test of the Tyranno drones had been a success. They had come through unscathed. He was now debating whether to wait the additional few days to have his weapon completed, or whether he should simply use his new power to attack the Rangers directly.

Elsa and Zeltrax were off somewhere, making preparations to his new weapon, and he enjoyed the quiet around him as he considered the possibilities before him. He knew that even in his current state, the Rangers could probably be bothersome, but he no longer believed they could defeat him, not even working together, using their combined weapons, or with their enhanced states. He wasn't entirely sure he could beat the Red Ranger's Triassic powers, but he felt confident enough that if he had to, he could beat even that.

From one moment to the next, that quiet vanished, as he felt the power he had been wielding evaporate from within him, and he roared in pain, as every cell in his body lost it's supercharge, and had to deal with the aftereffects of what had happened. Even has he gritted his teeth together and levered himself up through the pain, he felt the change coming over him.

"No, not now," he snarled as he felt Anton Mercer beginning to take back control. He understood what was happening, with a perfect clarity, after all, it was logical. If his potion, made from the life extracted from a human had supercharged his dinosaur side, then when it wore off, his human side would be able to take control. After all, unlike his now weakened Dinosaur half, his human half hadn't been affected by the potion. It was something he would have to correct, or else he'd be limited to using the mixture only during the final battle with the Rangers.

Physically his claws retracted, and his head changed into a more human visage, his body shrank, and his eyes changed. After a few excruciating moments, Anton Mercer gasped as he lay on the floor. For a few seconds he was disoriented until the memories of Mesogog took hold. It wasn't a perfect set of memories, just bits and pieces at first. Full memory would come later, as he knew from experience, but what he remembered chilled him to his soul.

"I have to get a message to them," he whispered to himself, as he stumbled from the chamber and to an inviso-portal he knew lead back to his house. Once there, he looked around for some way to send a message to Trent, to let him know what was going on. He'd managed once before to hide something from Mesogog long enough to get it out, when one of his digs had found that unusual gemstone. Realising from the reports that had accompanied it that it could be a power source for Mesogog, he had simply packed it into a box, printed out a note to go with it, and mailed it to Eamon Keeper. Anton had done a lot of business with the Keeper family over the years, and almost a third of all of his warehouse and industrial property was leased through their company. He didn't know the boy as well as he had Erica and James Keeper, but he had high hopes that he would do what was needed.

He wasn't sure, but the memories he could access from Mesogog, though not exactly complete, suggested that the gemstone had made it's way back to Reefside, and was now hopefully with the Rangers. He considered again wether he should let them know about his double life, but the simple truth was that he was afraid. Afraid of what would happen if people knew what he was, and possibly afraid that the Rangers wouldn't be able to find a way to cure him, and that they'd have to destroy him. He shook himself. It was better to work on it himself, and let the Rangers battle Mesogog's minions.

He grabbed the phone, deciding that speed was of the essence. He could already feel the part of him that was Mesogog beginning to try and re-establish control as he tapped in Trent's number. The phone rang once, and switched to voicemail, and Anton swore loudly as Trent's voice asked him to leave a message.

"Trent," he said, as the beep happened. "Mesogog has found a way to use the life-force extractor to make himself more powerful by draining the life out of people." He licked his lips. "But there is a more important problem. He has a new weapon, it's-"

"Now, now Anton," a feminine voice said behind him as he felt cold steel on his neck. "No spoiling the master's surprise." Elsa snatched the phone from him and flung it into the wall where it shattered into a dozen pieces. Anton turned, his expression calm as he faced the cyborg. She might be his physical superior in every way, but he refused to show his fear to her.

"You won't win," he said into the silence. "Trent, the others, they will stop you. Just like they've stopped you every other time."

Elsa laughed a mean laugh. "I doubt that. Lord Mesogog's new weapon will deal with the Rangers."

Anton tilted his head at her, and just smiled. "I have faith in their ability to find a way around anything." The supreme confidence he said it with almost gave Elsa paused, and then she sneered at him.

"That's so amusing," she said, stepping close and pressing the edge of her blade into his throat. Just a single twist or shift would kill him almost instantly as she continued her condescension. "You know the truth, from your contact with Mesogog's mind. You know that this will work, and you'll have to live with the fact that Mesogog won, and killed your son and his friends. Admit the truth," Elsa demanded.

"Never," he said into her face, his eyes never leaving hers despite the sword at his throat. His serenity in the face of danger was maddening to the woman who had come to retrieve him. It was bad enough that the Rangers didn't fear her, but Mercer was weak, even by their standards.

"So delusional," she cooed, before she slammed her free fist against the side of his head. He fell to the ground and she moved her sword to the side to avoid decapitating him as he fell, and for a moment she considered possibilities. If Anton Mercer died, she was almost sure that Mesogog would go with him, and she might never have a better chance to do the deed.

After a few moments she sighed. It might work, but to be honest, even if it did, she and Zeltrax couldn't stand against the Power Rangers by themselves and hope to win. For now, she still needed Mesogog. She picked up the crumpled form and walked back towards the portal. "The Rangers will never see it coming."

tbc...


	16. Chapter 16

**Name: **Ascendancy  
**Chapter 16:** Home Sweet Home  
**Disclaimer: **I own nothing, I am nothing. I am one with the gestalt. Sue him  
**Archiving: **It's yours if you want it, just let me know where it's posted.  
**Summary:** Plans are made for Kimberly to return as Trent struggles with his father's secret.  
**Shoutout: **To Jeannine, for writing a fic that stirred in me the desire to write again myself.  
**Shoutout:**_Jenna Summers_, Not all time powerful, just with potential to be more powerful than he is. I tend tot ry and avoid free God-upgrades. _The Real Vampire, _new powers? not yet, but they will come. _Jedi4Jesus_ thanks, glad you're still with me. _Ghostwriter,_ thanks, i'll try not to keep you waiting long. _Daniaryezel_, I liked how that worked too, and thanks for the banner. Now if only FFnet allowed me to add it in.

* * *

You can never go home again, but the truth is you can never leave home, so it's all right.  
- Maya Angelou

* * *

"Ultimate power," Tommy mused as he and Hayley walked away from the hospital. With visiting hours over, they had all been ejected from Conners room. Even Kira, despite a truly spirited argument with the nurse, had finally vacated the room and headed for home. Somewhat naturally, he had ended up walking with Hayley, the way they tended to end up in a group by themselves whenever they weren't engaged in Ranger duties. He often thought it was an age thing, with him and Hayley being closer in age and experiences than either of them with the teens. 

The conversation with Conner and Kimberly had been a long and tiring one, but the two main points that had come out of it were that Conner now had a direct link to the Morphing Grid through the gemstone, and that Kimberly now wanted to go home and take up the fight against Zedd and Rita. She'd even asked for a copy of details as to where various power sources could be found to give her a place to start looking for a way to recruit new Rangers. It was an ambitious and bold plan, to create a new Ranger team. He knew better than most how hard it was to go that route, and hoped that she would have as much luck with her team as he had with his.

Of course, there was still the not entirely minor problem of getting her home, but Hayley had seemed confident that she and Ethan would be able to figure that out before too much more time passed. Between her and Merrick, they had theorised, that the portal energy being absorbed by the gem had allowed the gem itself to create an inter-dimensional rift. They were also sure that if they could scan the differences in energy signatures between the gems, they'd be able to find a way to send Kimberly and hers back to where they belonged. Tommy had just nodded his head and asked what he could do to help, as this wasn't exactly his area of expertise.

"Potential for ultimate power," Hayley corrected absentmindedly, and he looked at her as they walked through the massive parking lot. He got the impression that she wasn't paying the least bit of attention to him consciously, and wondered what she was thinking about. He snorted mentally, even if she explained, there was a better than even chance that he wouldn't be able to comprehend it. He loved Hayley as one of his best friends, and his confidant, but he also knew that he would never be able to properly understand or appreciate the fact that she was a genuine, no doubt about it genius.

"Is the difference really that significant?" he asked, when it became obvious that she wouldn't comment further without prompting, and she looked up at him, slightly confused.

"What?" she asked, and he grinned. He had never been able to catch Hayley out like that, and had it been about a less serious matter, he would happily have teased her about it. Instead, he merely repeated his question, and she shrugged.

"It's all relative Tommy," she explained as they reached his jeep and she leaned against it, looking at him. "There is a difference between talent or potential and capability. You have a talent for Martial Arts, which is obvious to anyone whose ever seen you fight, or practice, or pick up a weapon you've never seen and use it competently with minimal practice. At the same time, without training, without discipline and effort, your talent wouldn't be worth much by itself."

She pursed her lips as she organised her thoughts, and he nodded at her. "So what you're saying is that the gem gives him the potential for power by directly accessing the Grid, but that he's going to need practice and effort to find a way to do it?"

"Essentially," she agreed, not adding that desperation was often a substitute for practice and effort. Not a particularly good substitute when all was said and done, but it was one nonetheless.

"So what were you thinking about?" he asked. "I've never seen you drift off like that."

She seemed to be internally debating what to tell him, and finally twitched her shoulders. "I called him," she said simply.

"Eamon?" Tommy asked, and she nodded.

"Some of the materials I'm going to need to be able to build the next best thing to an inter-dimensional transporter aren't cheap, and aren't common. You said he'd offered to help us if we needed it, and I think we need it," she explained. She had called him earlier when she had realised that she was going to need certain bits and pieces of tech. Her usual contacts were very helpful, and she had a quiet agreement with a specific firm whose name she never mentioned to any of her friends, that as long as she provided reports on how the hardware performed, they would occasional slide her a piece of technology without asking her what she was using it for. Unfortunately, what she needed now was a bit specialised.

Essentially, she wanted to create an exact duplicate of the situation that had existed at first, only inverted, and while they had the capacity to tap into the Inviso-portal network, what they didn't have was the technology to create portals that could reverse themselves. Each portal, when opened was only one way, but this wasn't usually a problem for them as they only ever used a single portal outward, and a single one inward when using the vehicles. Unfortunately, Kimberly had arrived on an outgoing portal, and that present a problem all it's own.

She had few ideas on how to build the tech, and once she and Ethan got together again later today to finish the calculations she'd have a final equipment list to give to Eamon. When she'd called, he hadn't balked or objected to her asking him if he could get the goods they would need. He had merely promised that if he could, he'd find a way, as soon a she got an exact list to him, and she'd quickly hung up after they'd discussed the delivery.

"So what's the problem?" Tommy asked, sensing that there was more going on than just a phone-call

"He's coming in person to deliver the goods."

"Why?" he asked. Hayley didn't get flustered, and she wasn't now. She seemed if anything, to just be deeply unhappy about the situation. Tommy knew that she was level-headed enough that she'd be over it shortly, but he was there, and wanted to help.

"It's not about trust, or that's what he said," she explained in answer to his unspoken question. "But he says that if he's going to be dropping tens of thousands of dollars of equipment on our doorstep, he wants to make sure it gets there okay."

Tommy whistled at the amount. As per her request, he had never asked where she managed to get all the tech that she had built for him. He had tried to find out once when they had first started working on the Morphers, but she had told him in no uncertain terms that the equipment was her side of the fence, and to trust her. He did trust her, implicitly, but it was obvious that the price tag was a lot higher than he'd assumed.

"So what's the problem? Come on Hayley," he said putting an arm around her shoulder. "I know you better than this. It isn't just about the equipment."

"You're right," she said as she sighed. "I can't help but think that he's got an ulterior motive for coming with the equipment. A quid-quo-pro sort of feeling."

The distaste in her voice was obvious, and Tommy grimaced at the implication. He had asked a lot from Hayley in the last two and a half years, and nearly managed to get her killed at least twice even before he'd become the mentor to a team of Rangers, but there were limits to all things. He didn't think her suspicion was right, but if it was, then that would be so far over the limit as to be on another continent.

"He wouldn't, and I won't stand for it," he said gently.

"Do you know that Tommy?" she asked, having apparently only heard the first half of his sentence. "I want to believe he's changed, but you remember what he was like in college,"

Tommy chose his next words carefully. He did remember what Eamon was like, but the years did change a person, and so did losing ones parents and becoming the owner of a multi-million dollar company. "People do change Hayley," he said gently. "Eamon had his happy life ripped away, and had the responsibility for thousands of employees dumped on his neck, and by all accounts he's done well by them. That takes a certain amount of character, and drive, and decency. Look, it may be exactly what he says it is, and if not," he shrugged. "Well, you've got a group of well armed superheroes on your side."

She looked at him in surprise, then her eyes crinkled and she began to chuckle. "Thanks, but I'm perfectly capable of dealing with him by myself. I just wanted some moral support."

"Always Hayley, you know that," he said as he gave her a quick hug, before opening the door and hopping in. Her car was parked one bay over, and she walked over to it as he buckled in.

"Yes, I do," she called to him with a smile. "But for now, I've got calculations to do."

* * *

"Dad?" Trent shouted as he ran in the door of the house. He glanced both ways where the corridor intersected leading off to the living room to the left, the kitchen wraparound straight ahead, and his father's study to the right. He panted for a second as he looked each way to see if he could see anything that would give him a clue as to where his dad was. He had got the message, the one that was broken off by Elsa just as he had tried to warn Trent about some new weapon Mesogog was building. He had taken off running without explanation to Ethan, leaving the young man in the dust as he ran. They had left the hospital together, and had been on the way to Dr. O's so Ethan could get a start on the calculations Hayley had left for him. 

But when he had heard the message, nothing else seemed to matter, only getting home, finding Anton Mercer. Not his father by blood perhaps, but still the man who had raised him with kindess. They had clashed on things, which family hadn't, but none of that mattered to him right now. He ran into the living room, looking round for any sign of Anton, and after a thirty second look, turned left into the kitchen which wrapped around to the hallway. This way, he could examin the entire downstairs without having to backtrack. Finding nothing in the immaculate kitchen, he took off for the office, his breath coming hard from the run back, and the speed he was moving through the house.

It didn't take him long to find the remains of the phone that his father had used to call him, but he didn't see anything else. No indication of a struggle, besides the phone, and no indication of where Elsa had taken him. He growled to himself, he knew exactly where Elsa had taken his father. Back to the island, back to where they could make sure that Mesogog, and not Anton Mercer was in control.

He desperately wanted to leap through the portal in the study, morph into the White Ranger, go Super Dino, and go to town on Mesogog and his henchman. He didn't though, because on a normal day, he could take Zeltrax, and he could take Elsa. If he was having a good day, he felt confident he could probably fight them both and remain standing, but unfortunately that wasn't the same thing as beating them, and then there was Mesogog.

He shied away from the memory of his time as an evil Ranger, but even then he had known that he probably couldn't take Mesogog by himself. The Rangers had never fought Mesogog directly, and so they didn't know just how powerful he already was. If Mesogog had really found a way to make himself even stronger, then the results didn't bear thinking about.

Trent dropped to his knees by the shattered remains of the phone, and gingerly fingered a piece of it. He had to tell the others, but if he did, they'd want to know how he knew that Mesogog could power himself up, and he didn't have a way to tell them, at least, not without betraying his fathers secret. He couldn't do that, but he had promised the others that he wouldn't allow anything to get in the way of his Ranger duties.

A single tear tracked down his face as he contemplated the possibilities, betray his fathers trust, or risk the Rangers being blindsided by Mesogog's new weapon. Could he really risk the wellbeing of one person against the fate of the Rangers, which in the final analysis meant the chance to stop Mesogog for good? He hated the way his thoughts were going, and he hated the fact that he could even consider breaking with his fathers trust.

Sitting on the lush carpet in the study of his home, Trent Fernandez was wracked with indecision.

* * *

Merrick and Tommy worked quietly in the kitchen of his house, making preparations. Ethan had arrived a little earlier talking on his cell phone to Kira about Trent having run off, and had vanished into the basement with only a per functionary wave to the owner of the house. He knew something was up, because Ethan never used his mobile unless it was something he considered vitally important, usually preferring payphones even then. 

Ethan as planning to spend much of the night studying what Hayley had already noted down, and would try and improve on it while Hayley was at home and sleeping, or more likely, doing math. She had been up almost continually for days now, and she had wanted to catch a few hours rest before coming back here and going at it again. Tommy stifled a yawn, he hadn't slept well in days, not since he had been affected by the gemstone. Fortunately, his previous night had only been interrupted by normal nightmares, the kind that still plagued him from time to time from his earliest days as a Ranger.

Since his house was essentially going to become a walking visitors center for Ethan, Hayley, and when he arrived Eamon, Tommy had decided that he wanted to get some food ready ahead of time, trusting in the endless stomachs of his Rangers to vacuum up anything that was left over. His grin faded as he considered Conner, certainly living proof that some people had hollow legs, when it came to eating. He had been so angry after the fight, not just that Conner had done it, but that he'd done it without letting anyone know about it. Conner had probably realised that if he had known, he would have put a stop to it, but it didn't stop him from feeling he should have realised an explosion like this was coming.

The plan as it was at the moment, was that Hayley and Ethan would calculate, then build an inter-dimensional teleport device, which Ethan had already nickname D-tripper, and then they would set up both devices outside, well away from the house. Tommy had not forgotten the explosion on their end of the portal when Kimberly had arrived, but the arrival side appeared to have been fairly clean. Of course, they could avoid the problem last time, of having equipment on it's way through the portal when it happened, and thus avoid the fire and smoke of burning equipment and fuel.

He chuckled to himself as he concentrated on the food, and for a brief while he was able to chase the immediate worries away. Conner had survived, Kimberly was alive and ready to go home, they had the technical know-how in Hayley and Ethan and the resources through Eamon. They hadn't heard from Mesogog in days, and everything else was running along smoothly at the moment.

Time passed as the two of them made mounds of food, packed it up, and deposited some of it in the fridge for snacking, and the rest in the freezer for future use, and he had just about finished cleaning up, when Tommy heard the door open. He poked his head out the kitchen, intending to make a joke about Hayley's workaholic tendencies, when he saw Trent standing in the doorway. The forlorn, lost look on the boys face chased away every jovial feeling he had, and something akin to dread replaced it.

"Trent?" he asked, as he stepped fully out of the kitchen. "What's wrong?"

Trent looked up at him, and his eyes were slightly red, as if he'd been crying, and there was such loss, and defeat on the boy's face that Tommy was surprised when Trents voice sounded as steady as it did.

"There's something," he began, then hesitated for a second. "There's something I need to tell you about Mesogog."

tbc.


	17. Chapter 17

**Name:** Ascendancy  
**Chapter 17:** The Choices We Make  
**Disclaimer:** I own nothing, I am nothing. I am one with the gestalt. Sue him  
**Archives:** Sure, just let me know where  
**Summary:** Trent comes clean, and Conner gives him some advice.  
**Shoutout: **To Jeannine, for writing a fic that stirred in me the desire to write again myself.  
**Shoutout: **_Jenna Summers_, Thanks, not a long wait hopefully. _Ghostwriter_, thanks for sticking with me, hope you enjoy. _The Real Vampire_, I'll try and clear up the bit with the Grid in the near future, if I can work it into the story, else I can always email you the explanation I'm working with. _Jedi4Jesus,_ Not a too bad one I hope. _Daniaryezel,_ Thank you, I try and give each chapter a very specific focus, because it makes it easier to write. Glad you like the little character moments.

* * *

A leader leads by example, whether he intends to or not.  
- Author Unknown

* * *

"So now we know," Hayley said quietly as she and Tommy stood in his kitchen. Tommy had talked with Trent for over an hour, before Trent had gone home to try and sleep, and he had spent much of that time reassuring the young man that he wasn't upset with him. He understood the value of secrets, and how hard it was to break your word once you'd given it, and it was obvious that Trent was suffering from what he felt was a base betrayal of his father. 

It had hurt more than he had expected to find out that Anton Mercer was the alter ego of their enemy. He had always known that Anton had kept secrets from him. It went with owning a massive business, but Tommy couldn't help but feel that he should have realised something was wrong with the man. Of course, the fact that he was Mesogog certainly answered some questions, like how he'd gotten off the island.

Tommy looked at the woman who was one of his best friends, his partner in crime, adventure and Rangers for almost half a decade, and wondered what she was thinking. She'd been Trents friend longer than anyone, having hired him the day after he came to Reefside, and the knowledge that he had again kept secrets from her must hurt. He had never considered keeping the knowledge from her, or the others, and he had told Trent as much. Trent had understood, though he hadn't been happy, that it wouldn't take a giant leap from people knowing that Mesogog was Anton Mercer, to realising that Trent must have known about it. However, at the moment, the only person who knew besides the two of them was Hayley.

Ethan hadn't stirred from his computer since he'd arrived, and had missed the entire event, and Tommy wanted a chance to get Hayley's thoughts before he broke the news to Ethan or the rest of the team anyway. It would also give Trent a chance to recover his emotional balance, before the inevitable questions from the others. "They're going to feel betrayed," he said, and Hayley began to say something. She stopped before she spoke however, and seemed to be gathering her thoughts before she spoke again.

"You're right, and in a sense it is a betrayal," she finally said, and Tommy got the impression there was far more going on behind her eyes than she was saying. For a second the insane idea flitted through his head that Hayley had known, but he ignored the idea. If she had, she would have let him know somehow. They both knew that if she wanted to, she could have come up with a sufficiently technical explanation involving scanners and energy signatures that he would never have questioned where the information had come from.

"It's a hard thing to go back on your word, and it's worse for Trent, because there's still some distrust from Conner and Ethan about his evil Ranger days," Tommy mused, and Hayley nodded her head in agreement.

"Actually, that's not my big worry," she said. "I think that if we ever end up directly in a fight with Mesogog, we've got to consider the possibility that he'll freeze." At the look Tommy gave her she grew angry. "Don't look at me like that Tommy Oliver. You know that it's possible for someone's emotions to get in the way of a fight, or are you telling me you had it easy going up against your friends on Murianthias?"

"You know," he said sourly. "There are days I regret telling you as much as I have. It makes it very hard to win an argument with you."

"You should know better by now than to try," she replied loftily, before they both broke into a grin.

Tommy rubbed his chin, "You're right though. I don't think it'll be a problem, but it could be. Fighting the ones you love is never easy."

"And he's got the hardest fight of them all, against family, against the man who adopted him when his own parents died."

"Which begs the question, can we help Anton get free of Mesogog?" Tommy asked, looking at Hayley. If anyone could find a way, it would be her.

"I don't know Tommy," she said quietly. "If we had more time, or a better idea of what exactly caused the transformation into Mesogog, then maybe. I guess it depends on how much time he gives us to prepare."

Tommy accepted the statement without question. If Hayley said she didn't know, then she didn't, and pushing her wouldn't help. "Well, here's hoping that we get our break,"

* * *

They sent Ethan home to get some sleep, as the next day was a school day, and before long Merrick and Tommy had turned in as well. Hayley, as she had a tendency to, forgot about the time as she worked, and when Tommy came down into the basement the next morning with fresh coffee, she had most of what she needed worked out, and even a tentative physical design. 

She accepted the coffee with a tired smile, and wasn't quite able to stifle a yawn before she took a sip. "You know, I really need to stop pulling these all-nighters. It stopped being fun in college," she said as she drained the cup in a single go. "But, they do have some purpose, as I think I'm done with the calculations."

"Amazing," Tommy replied. "So what kind of timescale are we looking at?"

"I'll give Eamon a call later, and if he can same day deliver, we should be ready for testing by tomorrow morning. It's Tuesday today, so Wednesday for actually sending her home."

"Good, in that case, I'd suggest you head home and get some sleep. After school, we can pick up Conner and Kimberly and head back here, and help you in any way we can. "

"I think sleep sounds really good right about now," she said as she stretched and felt her back pop. "I've also been thinking about what Conner said, about helping Kimberly out by giving her technical data on how to build morphers, and names and possible locations of former Rangers for her to recruit," she reached onto the cluttered desk, and pulled out a small metal block, which looked like it had a computer connection of some kind on it.

"This," she said, and passed it to him for inspection. "Is the latest in second generation micro-hard disks. Similar to flash-drives, but more immediately useful. I've been toying around with trying to build these into the Morphers, to record information during a mission, but things got in the way. I think I can probably fit one of these to her Morpher. I've got a spare palm pilot around somewhere that she could use to retrieve the information, and being part of her Morpher means it would be as safe as anything is likely to be."

Tommy looked at the device with a lack of comprehension. It looked like a perfectly normal small piece of metal, in a thing rectangular shape without obvious identifying markers. He gave it back to Hayley and shrugged. "Sounds like as good a way to go as any, and it means that we don't' have to worry about their hardware not working with ours."

She nodded, having already considered the possibility, and having adjusted a charger to be able to fit with a number of different types and voltages of electric sockets, so hopefully she'd be able to recharge the device when she got back to her own reality. She still wasn't entirely comfortable about providing this amount of information to Kimberly, but she had to admit that it would make recruiting new Rangers a lot easier. In theory at least, the information would help, but in practice she wasn't too sure. A world living under occupation for a decade plus would have been a very different environment for people to grow up in, and she doubted many of the former Rangers would be in the same places and occupations.

What's more, a number of teams had gained both members and powers due to influences that wouldn't be easy to duplicate. Without Andros, there would be no Astro-Morphers, and without the Quasar sabers, no Galaxy-Morphers, and that didn't even take into consideration that more than a few of the Rangers had been aliens, or in Merrick's case, still entombed somewhere. Still, she supposed that having some information was better than none in this case.

"In that case, I'm heading out. If you see Trent," she paused for a second, then gave a tired smile. "Tell him I said that it doesn't change anything for me."

* * *

Trent walked quietly into Conner's room, finding him dressed and ready to go. It had taken some convincing by Dr. O at school that he should come along, and if not for Hayley's message, he probably wouldn't have. The evil Ranger was one thing, he hadn't been able to control that, but he had chosen voluntarily to lie to the entire team, Hayley included, about Mesogog. How she could forgive him so easily was beyond him, but he was absurdly grateful for it. Dr. O had made it quietly but firmly clear that he still considered Trent part of the team, but he also felt Trent should be the one to tell the others. 

Ethan had gone straight back to Dr. O's place to start working on the calculations again, while Hayley was running Cyberspace, which had left him, Kira and Dr. O, as the ones to pick up Conner. To his surprise, Dr. O had insisted gently that Kira accompany him to get Kimberly, which gave Trent a chance to talk to Conner. He had both been grateful to his teacher for the way he'd convinced Kira, and terrified of the reaction he was going to get. So here he was, Conner being the most obvious person to tell first, and the one Trent expected to have the worst reaction to it. he hoped Kira would forgive him, and he was reasonably sure that Ethan would understand why he'd kept the secret, but Conner, in his experience, was far more willing to let his emotions rule the day.

Conner looked a lot better, Trent decided as he looked him over. The physical damage had mostly been healed by the sudden surge of power from the Morphing grid, and his bruises looked a lot more faded after a nights sleep. He was still moving with a little stiffness, but it didn't seem to be slowing him down much.

"So you're my pickup?" Conner asked, only a little surprise showing in his voice.

Trent nodded, "Kira and Dr. Oliver are going to get Kimberly." He picked up Conner's bag, but then held out his hand to stop Conner from getting up. "There's something you need to know before we go."

Conner looked at him with surprise, but didn't argue the point, staying where he was sitting on the side of the bed. "Sure, what's up?"

"When you guys asked me if I knew anything more about Mesogog, I did hold something back," he said, and winced as Conner's eyes narrowed. "Mesogog is also Anton Mercer."

It took Conner maybe fifteen seconds to run through a number of possibilities in his head of how Trent could have found out about that, and the conclusion was sobering. "How long Trent," Conner demanded. "How long have you known?"

"Since I was freed from the gems power," he admitted.

Conner was silent for a long moment, betrayal and anger warring in his face, and Trent felt about five inches tall. He knew he had good reasons for what he had done, but it was hard to hold onto that when confronted with righteous anger.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Conner finally asked, only a faint trace of anger in his voice.

"Because I promised him I wouldn't. He was sure he could find a way to beat it, and I promised him. I couldn't break my word," Trent explained in a rush. It was important to him that Conner understand why he had done it. If he was ever to keep the Red Rangers trust, then it was important that his motivations be clear as crystal.

Twice Conner seemed on the verge of saying something, then his face seemed to clear. "So why have you?"

"Because he left me a message that Mesogog has found a way to become even more powerful. I had to choose, between my father and the very real possibility that he's strong enough to take us on. You have no idea how powerful Mesogog is."

He had fought Mesogog directly only once, when he'd first beaten Zeltrax to become the second in command of Mesogog's operation. Mesogog had insisted on a demonstration of his powers for himself, and Trent had found to his surprise, that Mesogog was incredibly powerful. It was interesting that he chose to let Zeltrax and Elsa do most of his fighting for him, but that may have simply been to hide his power from his enemies.

"So you finally decided that it was worth breaking your word for?" Conner shook his head. "I think we need to clear the air Trent. I don't like the fact that you kept secrets from us. It makes it hard to trust you," Conner said.

"I know," Trent replied, keeping onto his control with all his might. "And I am sorry, but if i broke my word, then what would I have left, he's my father Conner." The last was more plea than argument, and he had no way of knowing that the McKnight family life was something other than ideal. Conner's expression closed in on itself, and for a few seconds he said nothing.

He suddenly shook himself, as if shaking of a bad memory, and looked back at Trent. "Can't blame you for that I guess." He didn't sound like he had wanted to come to that conclusion, but that never even registered for Trent.

"What?" he asked cautiously. Conner of all people had been the last he would have expected to have accepted that argument for keeping the secret, but Trent couldn't see anything hidden in Conner's expression.

"Look Trent, we all keep secrets," Conner explained as he finally got up from the bed. He walked to the window, and gazed out of it. "We keep them from our parents, from our friends, it comes with the uniform. I wish you'd trusted us enough to tell us before a crisis was due but that doesn't really matter anymore. What matters is what happens next." The sentence trailed off, and Trent hung his head.

When he'd gone home last night he had tried to sleep, but nightmares about his father had haunted him and finally driven him to the living room where he had sat in the dark, and had spent the rest of the night deep in thought. So far, he'd been able to ignore the logical ending of the feud between the Rangers and Mesogog. Neither side was going to be backing down, and sooner or later, it would end in a confrontation. If they hadn't found a way to separate Anton from Mesogog, they would have no choice but to fight him, and fight to win.

"You mean if we fight Mesogog?" he clarified, and saw Conner nod, confirming his fear.

"I need to know where your loyalties are, if you're going to choke on me because part of him's your dad." Trent was quietly amazed, both at the tone in Conner's voice, and that he had said it at all, and though he already knew what his answer was going to be, his respect for his leader went up a notch. It was never easy to ask hard questions, and questioning someone's loyalty had to be amongst the hardest questions that existed, because they presumed that there was a motive to be disloyal. It said interesting things about Conner that he had recognised the fact, and had asked the question anyway.

"No," Trent responded. "Mesogog is evil, and he has to be stopped. My father would want me to stop him," he said with finality.

"In that case," Conner said with a heavy sigh, as if he couldn't believe what he was saying. "No harm done,"

"Just like that?" Trent asked in disbelief, and Conner chuckled at him.

"Just like that. You want me to beat on you for a while, tell you how you're a bad boy and should have told us right away? I can if you want. I just don't think it'll actually you know, do anything," Conner explained.

"Nothing you could say would be worse than knowing I've betrayed my father's trust," Trent said quietly, and he was surprised when Conner walked over to him and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Then I think I'd rather be here as your support, than your reminder."

"Thanks," Trent said. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a moment, thanking whatever Gods existed that he had friends like the Rangers. People who would forgive him, even when he had messed up.

"Just promise me you aren't hiding any other secrets from us," Conner added, and Trent's eyes snapped open. There was something in his voice that was at once both mischievous and deadly serious, and Trent found himself at a loss for words. He shook his head in denial, and Conner cocked his head in a look that practically screamed that he didn't believe him.

"None?" he asked. "Not even about how you feel about Kira?"

"How?"

"I've got eyes, ears, and a working brain," he replied laconically. "You aren't exactly subtle you know," he added, referring to his habit of drawing Kira in various superhero costumes and fighting various big bads.

"There's nothing between me and Kira," Trent insisted, and Conner laughed.

"Is that why you looked like you wanted to beat me up when I hugged her the other day?" When Trent didn't respond, Conner sighed and indicated one of the chairs in the room. Trent didn't know what he'd done to give himself away, but it was obvious that Conner had no intention of letting the issue drop. Why he'd chosen now, of all times, was a mystery to Trent, but part of him welcomed it anyway. He knew he wasn't the most expressive person in the world, and had, like many people who considered themselves geeks and nerds and arty types, envied Conner's easy ability to talk to anyone, male or female.

"Look Trent," the brown haired youth said as he sat down next to him. "If you like her, then tell her that. Or you're going to lose her to someone else."

The warning in his voice was unmistakable, and Trent suddenly flushed with anger. "You?" he demanded, beginning to get up, but Conner just shook his head.

"No. She's one of my best friends, and I can't imagine my life without her, but that's all it is," he said, and there was the faintest hint of wistfulness in his voice, but Trent ignored that, focusing on the words. "But if you thought I was your only competition, then you're dreaming. She's smart, funny, and cute too. Sooner or later, someone else is going to notice that, and maybe that person isn't going to be as shy as you are."

"What should I do?" Trent finally asked, unaware that he was asking Conner with the same trust and respect he would have had asking something of Tommy or any of his other teachers.

"That's easy, go to where-ever you left her in the hospital and tell her," he answered.

"Easy for you to say," Trent said. "What if she says no?"

"What if she says yes," Conner countered. He ran a hand through his hair, his frustration evident, and leaned forward. "Trent, you can sit here and assume the worst, or go there and hope for the best. The world doesn't end if she says no."

Part of him knew that Conner was right, and that the only thing holding him back was that he was afraid that he couldn't handle her saying no. At the same time, it was easy for Conner to suggest that he do something. "Like you'd know," Trent said in a slightly sarcastic tone of voice. "When was the last time anyone said no to you?"

"I do know what its like," Conner said with a shrug. "But trust me on this; it's much worse to not know. I know you're already emotionally tied up over the Mesogog thing, but if you let these things wait, then tend to get even messier. I'm a big believer in confronting problems head on," he said as he got up, and grabbed his bag from where Trent had dropped it when he sat down.

"And you're okay with this?" Trent asked, still amazed. "I mean, doesn't me dating another Ranger complicate things?"

"It might," he agreed cheerfully. "But we'll jump of that bridge when it's burning under us. I'm going to trust you to make sure it doesn't get complicated."

Trent felt something in his heart cheer as he heard Conner talk. Trent knew that what the other man was saying wasn't really about trusting him about Kira, but about trusting him in general. "What about the others?" he asked, and Conner snorted.

"Honestly Trent, it's none of their business, just like it's none of mine." He got to the door and held it open for Trent. "You ready to go out and face the future?"

"Yeah, I think I am."

tbc...


	18. Chapter 18

**Name:** Ascendancy  
**Chapter 18:** A life well lived  
**Disclaimer:** I own nothing, I am nothing. I am one with the gestalt. Sue him  
**Archives:** Sure, just let me know where  
**Summary:** Final preparations are made to send Kimberly home, and Tommy thinks about his past  
**Shoutout: **To Jeannine, for writing a fic that stirred in me the desire to write again myself.  
**Shoutout: **_The Real Vampire_, I hadn't been too sure about the Kira/Trent thing until I started writing it, then it just felt so right, I couldn't do anything but that. _Ghostwriter_, glad you're still with me, thanks. _Daniaryezel_, thank you. I've always felt that fear and consequences are fun to deal with. Especially in something like PR which only tends to deal with them superficially._Kimberflame, _uhm, wow. I never thought I'd be someone's inspiration. Thank you. I'm afraid this isn't a Tommy/Kim shipper fic though. It just doesn't write that way.

* * *

What you need to know about the past is that no matter what has happened, it has all worked together to bring you to this very moment  
- Author Unknown

* * *

The delivery truck that was going to arrive late on the Tuesday evening to the otherwise unremarkable house that Tommy lived in was supposed to be a large one. Eighteen wheels, and obvious not easy to maneuver down the road that lead to his house, No doubt it's driver would wish he was elsewhere. 

There was, Tommy reflected, a lot of that going around. He was sitting on the porch, drink in hand as he watched and waited for the truck, and a familiar Thunderbird to come down Valencia Drive. In and about the house were the various members of his team, and most of them wished they were somewhere else.

Kimberly had refused to be here when the truck arrived, mostly because Hayley was going to be there. She had apologized for the injury Hayley had suffered when she arrived, and had then avoided the redhead as much as was humanly possible.

Hayley on the other hand, was still worried about the man in car coming behind it. Worried that he might not have changed as much as he had said, and worried that he'd try and use the gift of a huge amount of equipment as a bargaining chip of some sort. She didn't have the choice however, as she was the absolutely essential to get the technology working

He sipped on his drink and looked to his left where Kira and Trent were sitting close together by one of the trees on the edge of his property. He needed to talk to Conner about what he'd said to Trent in the hospital. He liked the young Hispanic a lot, but Tommy knew that he would never have approached Kira without a push. The scene at the hospital had been almost comical from his perspective, although he doubted that either Kira or Trent would have appreciated his opinion.

They of course, would much rather being somewhere else, talking about the tentative date they had planned, worrying about if they should date, and whether they were right for each other and celebrating their teenage status in all it's gory excess. Tommy shook his head and laughed softly at the thought. Of course, that just made them normal teenagers.

Merrick hadn't been able to contribute much beyond information, but hadn't been willing to leave either. The former Ranger insisted that he needed to remain until the device was used, even if he couldn't give a good reason for wanting that. Tommy had acquiesced quietly, and wondered just how he was going to fit all these people into his house if they decided to stay.

Ethan at least, was happy to be here. He didn't care about Eamon, had decided that nothing Kimberly said mattered to him anyway, had been happy but ultimately disinterested in Kira and Trents new relationship and was forming a tentative appreciation of Merrick's ability to provide food and drink to people who got so wrapped up in their own work that they didn't remember it themselves.

As the last person of their little gang joined him on the porch, dropping down onto the stairs with the ease of someone who had a lot of practice at sitting in odd places, Tommy grinned at his odd little family. They weren't blood relations any of them, but he had come to consider all of them family, much as he had the original Rangers, and later the Zeo and Turbo Rangers.

So many people had come and gone in the uniforms over the years, he thought quietly, and was grateful that Conner didn't seem to mind the silence. It was amazing to him, that only one had ever been lost, and that wasn't even to a Ranger bad guy, that was just stupid luck and a drunk driver.

"Penny for them?" Conner asked.

"Thinking about the old Rangers, and how much has changed," Tommy replied. "I don't know why the power keeps choosing me, but somehow I always seem to come back and see the changes."

"Greatest Ranger ever right?" he asked, his voice low. "Maybe whatever it is that makes Rangers just likes having someone around who knows the ropes."

"Then there are plenty of other Rangers they could have chosen besides me," he responded. "I wasn't even one of the first ones."

"But Kimberly was, wasn't she?" The name conjured up a host of images in Tommy's mind, and he knew that Conner hadn't just picked the name out of a hat.

"That's not your business Conner," Tommy warned darkly, and Conner held up his hands in a placating gesture.

"No offense Dr. O, but I've seen the way you look at this Kimberly, and I've read enough in the archives to suggest you and the original had it bad."

Conner took a sip from the can, his eyes fixed forward, and Tommy felt an odd sense of kinship with the boy. Maybe it was the fact that they had both been Red Rangers, and that Conner was now apparently the heir to the White Ranger powers, and maybe it was the beer he was drinking, but he was willing to try and explain.

"That was a long time ago Conner. Yes, we dated, and yes we broke up and it nearly killed me," he admitted. "But that was ten years ago. The human heart can't hold onto pain that long, and even if I did meet up with her again, we aren't the same people as we were before."

"But you still have feelings for her right?" the youth asked.

"Not In the way you mean," Tommy replied, and paused for a second. He wouldn't normally talk about his past at all, but part of him wanted Conner to understand. "Kimberly and I, we had something special in High School. And yes, when I was young I had these elaborate dreams about dating her for years, then getting married, having kids, white picket fences, the works."

It was an odd realisation that he hadn't actually thought about those dreams for years now. He'd dated after he and Kat had broken up, but he hadn't really found anyone he would consider settling down with, and he had finally come to the conclusion that he actually liked his bachelor life.

He didn't, and would never live like a monk or anything, but he was content with relationships that stayed on the fringe of seriousness, rather than developing from that. He knew that while he wasn't unusual in that, it wasn't where he had expected his life to have gone.

"So what happened?"

"Life did Conner," he said as he smiled wistfully. "Kim got the chance to compete at the pan-globals, with a shot at Olympic Gold perhaps. You're a soccer player, could you have said no if a chance like that came along."

Conner nodded in understanding. It was the kind of once in a lifetime opportunity that only the rarest of people ever turned down, and for good reason. Without noticing, his hand moved to where his morpher was hidden by a sleeve, and he wondered what he might have done in the same place. Of course, there was an obvious question "But wasn't she a Ranger?"

"Yes, she was. We found a way to transfer her powers to someone else, Katherine Hillard."

"Hey, I've seen that name on the envelopes you leave on the kitchen table," he said excitedly, then quickly sobered when he saw Dr. O's expression. "I wasn't snooping, honestly." He said. "I just saw the name on an envelope when I was getting a drink."

Tommy finally got the stormy expression of his face and took another drink. He hadn't particularly hidden the letter he'd gotten from Kat a few days earlier, and it wasn't a big deal either way. He had kept in touch with several of the Rangers through mail. He didn't know why he resisted the emails and instant chat programs a lot of people favoured, and he just guessed that it was simply a preference for him.

"Kat and I go a long way back as well. And if we didn't have quite the same relationship as I had with Kimberly, we parted on better terms. We both had wildly different dreams of where we'd end up, and those dreams just took us in different directions. She's dancing in England at the moment, and the letter was her telling me about her next show."

It had been as inevitable as the tide that they would end up separating, once the point of both being Rangers had passed. They simply didn't have anything much beyond that in common, with different dreams, and hopes for life. It was a myth that people had to break up over major issues like infidelity or lack of love. Most people just broke up because there wasn't a reason to stay together. In Kat's case, they had stayed friends, and he'd even seen her a few times in the intervening years, mostly when either he, or she was on vacation near to where the other one was.

"Cool," Conner said as he nodded. Then he grinned and nudged Dr. O's shoulder. "So, you dated two Pink Rangers?"

Tommy smiled, but didn't react otherwise. He was long past his embarrassment reflex except in the most unusual circumstances. "No Conner, I dated two women," he said with a grin. "That they were both Pink Rangers was a coincidence, nothing more."

"Whatever you say Dr. O," Conner said, his grinning expression openly disbelieving. "So what happened after that?"

"I went to college, tried my hand a racing, and eventually became a PhD."

Conner blinked a few times, as his teacher skipped over the last decade of his life in one sentence. "Wait, it sounds like you missed a few steps. How did you from racing to a PhD?"

"Another time," came the response, as Tommy just shook his head and Conner didn't ask again. "But that was all a long time ago. I'm not sure you ever forget your first love, but you do move on from it. I've been luckier than most in that I've had amazing friends who've helped me through it, mostly by letting me talk," he said putting a hand on Conner's shoulder and grasping it firmly.

"Hey, I drink all your coke's. It's the least I can do," Conner said, hiding a slight blush at the comment. "Besides, I seem to be listening to a lot of people lately."

"So I saw. You did good Conner." At his questioning look Tommy turned slightly more towards him. "Being a leader is about more than just calling the morph, or having the center-cockpit seat in the Megazord. It's about being able to put your team first, being able to live, and fight, and maybe one day die for them. Not just as a Ranger, but as a person."

He got up and walked around for a moment, stretching his legs. "When you lead a team of any kind, you need to actually lead them, not just order them about. If you can't be in the thick of things, personally or professionally, you probably aren't cut out to be the boss." He sat back down again and looked at Conner. "And yes, sometimes you sacrifice for them, and make deals for them, and give them pushes when they won't do something themselves. You put yourself in danger for them, and risk for them. If necessary, I believe most leaders would die for their teams."

There was a look on Conner's face that Tommy didn't like when he said that last bit, and as he ran a hand through his spiky hair, he wondered what exactly had happened when Conner had touched the gemstone. He believed that Conner had told them everything he thought they needed to know, but he couldn't shake the feeling that there was more to it than just that.

"You think it's going to get that bad?" Conner finally asked, and there was a seriousness in his voice that Tommy hadn't heard before. This wasn't just a friendly chat between them, but a conversation between the field leader of the Dino-Thunder Rangers, and their primary strategist.

"I don't think so but that message from Anton worries me anyway." What he didn't tell the young man was that the Rangers had a tendency to scrape through their final battle with the bad guy by the skin of their teeth, more often than not, losing their powers in the attempt.

"Me too," he admitted. They sat in companionable silence for a few minutes, before Tommy finally got up.

"What you did for Kira and Trent will, in the long run, hopefully make them more effective rather than less." He once again put his hand on Conner's shoulder, "And I've got faith in this team, and its leader. In the last eight months you've become a Red Ranger I'm proud to fight with."

Conner did blush this time, and stuck to safer conversations. "Trent would never have made the first move without a push," Conner said. "Neither would Kira. Come to think of it," he said with a smirk. "Hayley and me aside, you're all very socially awkward people,"

Tommy laughed, "I guess we are at that." The two of them looked up as a truck slowly came round the bend.

"Hey," Conner said with a guileless grin as he stood and stretched. "At least kicking ass is a common language, and we all speak that one."

* * *

"Hayley stood by the back of the truck where the driver and his companion were unloading numerous crates. Some of them larger than others, but all of them filled with essential technology. She had taken over directing traffic, so far at least ignoring Eamon who had gone to talk to Tommy on the porch while the equipment was unloaded. 

The two people unpacking seemed to be doing a good job, until one of them overbalanced himself and almost dropped one of the crates. For a second, Hayley had been sure that the crate was going to come crashing down, but they managed to keep it under control.

"Hayley?" Eamon asked from behind her, and she turned towards him. "I just need to talk to these guys, then I'd like to talk to you if you don't mind."

"Not a problem," she responded as Eamon walked over to the movers. He spoke quietly to one of them, who nodded hastily and response and got back to work. An intent look on his face, Eamon walked back to where Hayley was standing.

"So what was that about?" she asked, sticking to a safe curiosity.

Eamon shrugged, "I reminded him that these crates are worth more than twice his annual salary, and that if anything got broken, I'd make sure he'd lose his job for it." There was no mistaking the belief in his voice that he could have done exactly that, and Hayley wondered suddenly how ruthless one had to be run major business.

"A little harsh don't you think?" she asked, and was only slightly dismayed when she couldn't keep a biting edge out of her voice.

"I don't pay good money for people to break things. This stuff is valuable, and needs to be taken care off," he replied. His voice was low, and surprised, as if the connection should have been obvious.

Hayley sighed; it was time to grab the bull by the horns so to speak." Yes, about that. Look Eamon, I do appreciate the donation, but I hope you don't think this changes anything between us." The words came out in something akin to a rush and Eamon looked at her in surprise.

"What do you?" he began to say before a look of understanding crossed his face. He looked away, his eyes closing as a pained expression crossed his face. "Right," he said. "You think that I'm going to use this to try and force you to like me?" he asked, acid in his tone. "Is that really what you think of me Hayley?"

"When we were in College you used to have a reputation of," she hesitated for a moment. "Plying people with expensive gifts."

Eamon gave a biter snort, and just turned round and began walking to his car. For a moment Hayley didn't move. She had been expecting an outburst, not for him to just walk away from her.

"Where are you going?" she called out.

"Home Hayley. I didn't come here to blackmail you, or force you to do anything you don't want to," he said as he unlocked the door. "But I am so very tired of having you judge me based on what I did in College."

She walked over to the car and looked at him, as he got in. He did up his seatbelt, but rather than turning on the engine, he looked up at her through the open window.

"Did you really just come down here to drop of equipment?" Hayley demanded from him, crossing her arms.

"Yeah, I did," he responded. "This isn't a company expenditure Hayley, this is near enough ten grand of my own money. When I spend that sort of money, I make sure it gets where it's going personally."

He looked like he wanted to say more, but had no idea what, and inside Hayley she wondered why it was so hard for her to believe him. She knew that people changed, and that half a decade was a long time for most people, and certainly long enough to be a very different person.

But she couldn't shake off the feeling that it wasn't real. The feeling that if she let her guard down and let him convince her, then she'd be setting herself up for a fall.

"I wish I could believe you," she finally said. She was surprised by how hard it was to say.

His voice was laced with disappointment when he responded. "But you don't."

"Can you blame me?" she asked, at least attempting a smile.

"Objectively?" he asked, then laughed bitterly. "No, I guess I can't." he looked at her, and his lips drew together. "But dammit all Hayley, if you see conspiracies and plots in everything I do, how can I ever prove to you that I've changed."

"I don't know Eamon," she said with exasperation. "I wasn't there when you changed, and ever since you came back, you've been throwing your money around, and asking me out on dates, just like back then."

"I didn't give you the equipment because I wanted to go out with you," he said, his voice soft. "I gave you the equipment because you said you needed it," he explained. He undid his seatbelt and got back out of the car, closing the door so that there was only a few feet between them. "What do you want from me Hayley?" he asked, his tone pleading, as if desperate to understand.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"What can I do to prove to you that I've changed? Anything you want. Stay here, go home, do something, don't do something," he stopped and took a deep breath. "Tell me what you want from me?"

She shook her head. "It's not that easy Eamon."

"Why not? Hayley, if I've learnt one thing in the last couple of years, it's that sometimes things are that easy. You just have to decide to do it," he could see that his argument wasn't going to do it, and decided to try another tack. "I've gone skydiving

"What?" Hayley asked, blinking at the total non-sequitur

"Skydiving," he repeated. "Last year, on the north shore of O'ahu when I was on vacation."

"What happened to your fear of heights?" she asked with surprise. It had been one of her and Tommy's longest running jokes while in school that Eamon had all the money and power anyone could want, but was terrified of being more than a few feet of the ground.

He obviously had to fly, and even back then he'd accepted that as a distasteful but necessary part of life. However he'd always driven everywhere he could, and only flown when he had no choice whatsoever. She couldn't imagine him willingly jumping out of a working aircraft. As she thought about it, she wondered what he was trying to tell her.

"It's still there," he admitted. "But it's just fear. It doesn't control me."

She nodded as she suddenly understood why he had told her. "And you're telling me this because you want me to do the same," she stated.

"The Hayley I once knew wouldn't let anyone run her life," he said, and he suddenly grinned. "In fact, I recall at least once where you told a teacher something you certainly never picked up out of a tech manual when he tried to do it. So what changed?"

"That's manipulative," she said.

He shrugged "Doesn't stop it from being true."

Hayley stopped to consider that for a minute. She knew her fear was irrational. They weren't children or even College kids anymore. She was a moderately successful business owner in her own right, and she had never let simply being afraid stop her.

"All right," she finally said, a serious look on her face. "You want to know what I want you to do?

"Yes," he said, nodding, and Hayley could see the relief on his face that she was going to be able to tell him what it was he could do. It was an interesting reaction in it's own right suggesting that he was committed to proving himself to her.

She took a breath, "Dress down. Put away the suits, and the fancy cars, and the boat-rides, and the skydiving trips to Hawai'I, and go out with me like regular people."

It was an odd thing to ask, but at the same time, it was something that was very right as well. She knew that he had always used his wealth and status as both armor and sledgehammer to get what he wanted, and that without them, she'd be able to see the real him.

He began to smile at the idea. "Be a regular person," he slowly said. ""I think I can do that."

* * *

An ant trekked industriously across the notebook that was lying in the grass at Trent's feet. He was sitting in the grass, his eyes on the girl sitting with her back against a tree. Her guitar was as forgotten as his notebook was. It had only been a couple of hours since he had found her in the hospital, and fortified by Conner's words, had taken her aside and asked her if she wanted to out on a date with him. 

She hadn't laughed, hadn't rejected him out of hand, and hadn't looked at him like he was crazy. She'd just looked confused and wide-eyed, almost comically like a deer in headlights. So he'd asked her again, and she'd said yes.

That was then, and now, there was an uncomfortable silence between them. Having agreed to go on a date, neither one of them had known where to go next, and Trent tried desperately to find something to say.

"So," Kira finally said before he'd managed to come up with something.

"Yeah," he replied, his mind blank as to what to say beyond that.

After a few more moments, Kira rose to her feet, and grabbed her guitar. "Maybe this was a bad idea," she said, an apologetic look on her face, as she began to walk.

For half a moment Trent let her go, then Conner's words came back to him, and he scrambled to his feet after her. "Wait," he called out as he snagged her arm and turned her around. "Why?" he asked. She didn't say anything for a few seconds, and Trent felt the moment slipping away from him.

He took a deep breath, and ignored everything in his head that told him to stay safe, and be non-committal. "I love you Kira."

The total silence that greeted his comments was all the more noticeable when she opened her mouth and nothing came out. His hand dropped from her arm, and she looked sharply at it, then back at him. "What did you say?"

"I said I love you Kira. Have done ever since I saw you. I was just too afraid," he shook his head as his voice trailed of. He took a step backward, not wanting to crowd her, but she came forward slightly and stopped him.

From under messy hair falling over her face, she gave him a smile. "I don't know how to handle this," she admitted. "I'm not exactly the poster child for high school romance."

He returned the smile. "That makes two of us," he said softly. "Maybe we should both as Conner for advice."

He hung his head as he realized it was possibly the stupidest thing he'd ever said, but to his surprise she just laughed at the joke. His heart thundering in his chest, he reached a hand up to brush her hair out of his face, and before he could stop himself, he leaned forward and kissed her.

Fire ran through his body as their lips met, and after the tiniest of hesitations, she stepped into his embrace, and for a while he was lost in that perfect sensation. There was hesitance, and uncertainty but also tenderness and compassion, and time didn't seem to mean anything.

When they broke apart a few moments later, they were still standing close together, and Kira didn't seem in any hurry to break the embrace. Holding her close, and with the memory of their kiss still strong in his mind, he smiled. "You want to go see a movie tomorrow?"

She raised her head so she was looking into his eyes, and smiled back at him. "Yeah, I think I'd like that."

Trent leaned his head forward and kissed her again, and somehow he was sure it would all work out.

Tbc…


	19. Chapter 19

**Name:** Ascendancy  
**Chapter 19:** Homeward Bound  
**Disclaimer:** I own nothing, I am nothing. I am one with the gestalt. Sue him  
**Archives:** Sure, just let me know where  
**Summary:** Kimberly and Merrick both head for home, and Mesogog gives Elsa an ultimatum.  
**Shoutout:** To Jeannine, for writing a fic that stirred in me the desire to write again myself.  
**Shoutout: **_Jenna Summers_, Aren't they though. :P. _Jedi4Jesus_, glad you're still reading. _The Real Vampire_, glad you liked the Trent/Kira thing. _Charles Rocketboy_, glad you're liking it so far. I'm a big believer in the fact that friends keep in touch, and I haven't seen any canon evidence that Kat and Tommy parted as anything but friends. _Daniaryezel_, Thanks, and as for Hayley, she's essentially got a deal with a few companies that they provide her with equipment and she beta-tests it and writes performance reviews. More on this in later chapters.

* * *

Once you choose hope, anything is possible  
- Christopher Reeve

* * *

Conner got out of the car, just after school on Wednesday and looked around the side of Dr. O's house, which had obviously changed quite a bit from the day before when the bits and pieces had been delivered. All the vehicles were moved over to one side, and two sets of new equipment that looked like something out of one of Ethan's sci-fi shows had taken their place. There was a large squat piece of machinery that he couldn't identify that Hayley was working at, and two separate pieces that looked like oversized tuner forks standing opposite each other a fair way away. Obviously Hayley had remembered that an explosion had happened last time.

"Dude, isn't it awesome," Ethan said enthusiastically. He had good right to as well, having helped Hayley build this equipment. How many people could honestly say that they'd worked on something like this in their teens after all? "An actual, inter-dimensional teleport grid. It's never been done before."

Conner chuckled at his friends enthusiasm, but wasn't sure if he shared it. Hayley hadn't seemed as confident as Ethan was, and had repeatedly stressed the fact t hat they weren't absolutely sure they could send her back, and that she might end up in another reality entirely. Kimberly hadn't been willing to let that risk stop her though.

"It's been done before," Dr. O. said as they approached him. "When my first Ranger powers were being drained, Billy Cranston and Trini Kwan made something similar to this so Jason could enter Rita's Dark Dimension," he explained. "Of course, we knew where we were trying to get to."

"And we don't here," Ethan nodded. "Dr. O, I'm sure the math that Hayley and I worked out is solid. I'm sure we can track Kimberly's home dimension by the gems dimensional vibration."

Silence greeted him, and Conner smiled again as Ethan looked from his confused face to Dr. Oliver. "Don't worry Dr. O. If Ethan and Hayley say they can do it, I'll take their word for it."

"I think we're ready," Hayley called out from where she was busy screwing a panel back on the machine she was standing by. Eamon stood a few feet away, looking as confused as Dr. O and Conner felt. He'd decided to stay in Reefside to make sure nothing went wrong. It was a reasonable and completely legitimate reason for him to stay, though no one was actually fooled by it.

Kimberly had been sitting quietly on the porch, and rose with Hayley's statement. She was once again dressed in her own clothes, and it was suddenly obvious what she was giving up by going back. Not just the clothes, but the sense of going from a truce, back into a war zone. If she didn't have any of the nervous anger she had been carrying about when she arrived, she had begun to revert back to the part of her that was truly a soldier.

Excusing himself, from Ethan and Dr. O, he walked over to her. "Hey," he said, plastering a grin he didn't really feel onto his face. As much as he would be glad when she was gone, he knew that she was going back into something most people wouldn't willingly enter. It said good things about her character.

"Conner," she responded. When she smiled at him, it wasn't a very good or well-practiced smile, but it was an honest one. "I hope this thing works."

"You'll be okay," Conner said. "You've got all the information we have on Rangers, and Morphers and power sources."

"I know," she replied. "But that's not the biggest gift you've given me," she stopped and almost seemed to bite her lip. When she raised her head, her eyes were clear, and Conner envied the deep serenity he saw in them.

"You gave me back a part of me that's been lost for a long time. It's a shame you can't come with me, and watch how we teach Rita and Zedd that no matter how often you beat us down, we'll get back up again."

"I think I prefer my world, over yours," he said dryly. "But I expect you to kick Zedd's ass for me as I'm not coming with you."

"I intend to, you've given me hope Conner. You've given me back something I thought I'd lost years ago. I can't ever repay you for that."

"You just make sure that you don't get lost again. I don't know if he me in your world can come find you."

"I won't," she said, and gently touched the gemstone once again on the chain round her neck, and Conner glanced down at the glow shining through his jeans pocket, and he took the other gemstone out. "I don't think I'll ever forget you Conner McKnight."

He shrugged, only slightly embarrassed, and gave her a light hug "Good luck Kimberly."

She returned the hug, and then went to talk to Tommy, and say brief good-byes to the others. Trent wasn't here, having decided that someone needed to take care of Cyberspace, and Kira had decided to join him to no-one's surprise. He had been surprised to realise that he was genuinely pleased for the two of them, but given how they seemed to forget people were around them, he was just as glad they weren't there. Constant reminders of him being single weren't something he enjoyed.

Some ten minutes later, when Hayley had made her final checks of the equipment, Kimberly took her place in-between the two fork-shaped poles in the ground, while Hayley and Ethan tapped in commands at the main part of the machine. Hayley ordered everyone back several dozen paces, so that if there was another explosion, then they shouldn't be hit quite as hard.

As the machine powered up, Kimberly looked over the small crowd, as if determined to remember them all, and she smiled at Conner.

"On my mark," Hayley called, looking at the machinery. "Three, two, one, mark."

She pressed a button, and an inviso-portal activated between the tuners. The sound of the vortex drowned out Hayley's voice as she kept flipping switches. The gemstone Kimberly wore seemed to glow as tendrils of green energy reached out from the portal and touched the gem.

"May the power protect you," Conner whispered, his gemstone still in his hand, and she inclined her head to him as if she'd heard them. Then stepped forward as the portal changed color to the same deep red that they had seen before, and in a flash of light, Kimberly vanished.

If her disappearance had been quiet and unremarkable, the side-effects hadn't. There was a small sound, like a balloon popping, before the portal imploded, and Hayley shouted at everyone to get down as the blast-wave rode forward from the portal, smashing equipment and knocking people who were too slow to react off their feet. Conner, having both super-speed on his side, and having been expected it managed to get down before the wave hit him, and he covered

Dust and gravel covered him, but the shockwave passed quickly. As soon as he was sure it was safe, he sat up brushing the debris off him, and he looked around. Hayley was being helped to her feet by Eamon, and Dr. O, was standing by Ethan. Merrick, who had remained well back didn't look like he had been knocked down by the wave at all.

Conner walked over to where the others were standing, by the remains of the equipment that Hayley had built, and glanced at her. "So, is that it?" he asked. It all seemed rather anti-climactic, but that was probably a good thing. Hayley seemed to understand what he was asking, and nodded.

"Yes, she's gone back, I'm just not sure she's gone back to the right place." She brushed her hands on her jeans and shrugged. "There's no way to know if we got her back home."

"Maybe not," Conner replied, a strange smile on his face. "But there's always hope."

* * *

Inside Mesogog's fortress, the air was tense, and Elsa backed away rapidly as Mesogog advanced towards her.

"What?" he snarled and she swallowed desperately. She hated being the bearer of bad news, and wished desperately that Zeltrax had been here so that she could have pushed him into reporting this for her. Unfortunately, he was nowhere to be found, and so she was left to face Mesogog's wrath all by herself.

"One of the power sources has vanished," she got out with a gulp. "I was tracking it, there was an energy spike and then it vanished."

"Are you telling me," he hissed softly. "That a power source, second only to the Dino-Gems has vanished, and you don't know where it has gone."

"Yes my Lord," she stammered, her heart beating fast. She knew that when Mesogog got quiet, he was at his most dangerous, because it meant that he was thinking rather than reacting. She tried to find a silver lining in the situation, but couldn't. Their tracking systems weren't accurate enough to figure out exactly where the power source had vanished, and no doubt the Rangers would be wherever it was, so they couldn't just drop in some Tyranno-Drones and look.

"I am not pleased Elsa," Mesogog said as he returned to his chair. "Still, with my new weapon now complete, we only need to kidnap a few more humans and I'll be ready to take on the Rangers. Send Zeltrax to Reefside, and come back with two more humans," he ordered. He placed a single claw by the side of his head in a gesture Elsa had learnt to interpret that he was thinking about something, and was no longer paying attention to her, and she swore inwardly.

While she hadn't been able to find a silver lining, there was one more thundercloud she had to tell him about. "My Lord?" she asked hesitantly, and stepped back as his eyes came up. "There is one other thing. The energy spike is the same as the one from several days back that disrupted the portal network."

Mesogog was silent for one moment, then leapt towards her, seizing her neck in his hand and lifting her off the ground. As her windpipe was cut of she grabbed his arm and tried desperately to lift herself to relieve some of the pressure.

"Are you saying that I now have a weapon to fight the rangers, but cannot use the portal network," he demanded, and she struggled to answer, even as he shook his arm, making her attempts to breathe catch in her throat. "You know how essential it is that I can use the network for this to work."

"I apologise," she gasped out. her face was beginning to go purple. "Boats," she breathed, and he cocked his head at her, then dropped her on the ground. She coughed as she sucked in a deep breath, trying to get rid of the spots in front of her eyes.

"What did you mean?" he demanded, and Elsa pushed her own frailties aside. She knew that he was expecting a prompt answer, or next time he might not let her go at all.

"My lord, Zeltrax can take one of the boats like last time," she said, her breathing coming in short and shallow.

"Very well, go with him," Mesogog announced and Elsa's eyes widened. While she had been quite happy to send Zeltrax to Reefside, she knew exactly how vulnerable they were against the Rangers without the ability to teleport out. It meant that if they were caught, they'd have to fight to win, and neither she, nor Zeltrax had a very good track record of winning against the Rangers. She began to have a bad feeling about this.

"Me?" she asked. "My lord, I think my time would be better served here," she began to explain but he cut her off.

"Go," he said and his tone brooked no disagreement. He turned, considering the discussion closed and walked to his throne. Elsa bowed and began to leave the room when his voice made her stop.

"And Elsa, if you fail me again, you will regret it."

* * *

"I should be going as well," Merrick told Tommy as the two stood once again in the kitchen of the little house. The group had split up after the Kimberly had left, the kids and Hayley and Eamon heading out to their various homes and hangouts, leaving just him and Merrick in the house. It was approaching early evening, and while Tommy had offered Merrick the use of his house tonight, the enigmatic man had politely refused.

Tommy stood reaching a hand towards the man. "It has been good to see you again Merrick," Tommy said. "Whatever my feelings about Zen-Aku, you've been a good friend, your help was invaluable."

"We all go where we need to," the man replied as he gathered up his possessions. "Right here and now, I was needed, and welcome. Now, the open road calls me again, and I have to where my feet take me."

"Then take care," Tommy replied, as they walked to the door. "And if you ever come back this way, look me up." He took out a small badge, about half the size of his hand, and tossed it to Merrick who caught it without batting an eye.

"What's this?" he asked.

"A communicator. If you ever need us, just hit that button and we'll hear you."

"Thank you," Merrick said as he dropped it into a pocket, and then smiled. "The Ranger legacy is in good hands," Merrick said brushing some hair out of his eyes.

Tommy shrugged at the compliment. "I'm just a teacher."

"You are so much more than that. Cole always spoke of you as if you were some kind of Ranger Legend, and icon. You aren't, but what you are is better. A man who knows that he has limits, and fears and flaws, and keeps fighting anyway."

He stopped and put a hand on Tommy's shoulder. "I know you have doubts my friend, and wonder if you can ever put the evil totally behind you." Tommy nodded once, and Merrick continued. "I can't tell you that you ever will, but I can tell you this. As long as you keep fighting, keep doing what's right, your evil like my own, can be forgiven by those who love you."

With that, he turned from the house, and began to walk, never looking back. As he vanished into the trees, Tommy could have sworn he saw a second being join him, and he smiled. It looked like sending Kimberly home had also allowed Zen-Aku to return. He still didn't know how he felt about a Ranger and a Duke Org traveling together, but it was obvious that Merrick was okay with it, and that made it okay by him as well.

The house seemed empty now. For five days now it had been constantly filled with people, not just Kimberly and Merrick, but all the teens and Hayley and Eamon coming and going at all times of day and night. He sank down on his couch and put his feet up and he found that he missed the company. Not that the dark and haunted woman Kimberly had been was his ideal choice of companion, nor for that matter, the former Ranger and his Org companion, but the house was to big for just one person. It wasn't even romantic company that he was looking for, just the companionship of friends.

As he thought about friends, his eyes lit on the letter on his table, and he reached for the piece of mail with Kat's name on it, and opened it up, reading the letter again. She had just come of a good run on a performance in Swan Lake as one of the primary dancers, and now had both a few weeks break, and some money to spend it in. Jason had offered to show her around Los Angeles, where he was living these days, and she had written to Tommy, hoping that he'd come up and join them for a day or so.

Letters, Tommy realised, were no substitute for sitting in comfortable chairs with old friends. He smiled as he got up and walked the letter to his desk, and grabbed a pen and some paper, and began writing a response. The house might have been empty, but his heart was always filled. As he had told Conner the day before, his friends were his lifeline, his reason for waking up in the morning, and the strength that kept him fighting, no matter the odds or opposition. The love of his friends, and compassion had helped him through the darkest times in his life, and he had no doubt would do so again.

His thoughts turned to Mesogog, who hadn't yet made a move despite the fact that he must have known that Anton had warned the Rangers. He wondered when the mutant would strike next, and how the attack would happen. No news probably wasn't good news in this case, as it meant Mesogog was preparing for something. He had no doubt it would be truly nasty when it happened. Or maybe he was ready to go, but that the portal network had again been destabilised by the inter-dimensional teleportation. It was something he'd have to look into in the morning.

Putting pen to paper, he began to write, telling Kat that he'd be delighted to see her and Jason again when she came over. Barring emergencies of course, but he was sure she would understand. She had worn the uniform herself for several years. As he finished up the  
quick note, he thought about that other Ranger woman he had known all those years ago. Being honest with himself, he had to admit that he was probably over Kimberly. One could only keep hold of a teenage crush for so long before time changed it from being a memory to being an ideal.

"Still," he said to himself, his voice seeming loud in the quiet house. "Maybe once we deal with Mesogog for good, we need to have a Ranger reunion." Nothing specific, but just a gathering of various old Rangers, and new ones. Something to give them all a chance to meet and share in their joint legacy.

He smiled at the thought, almost all of his close friends were either Rangers, or people who had helped the Rangers like Hayley. Maybe getting all the Rangers together would be a good reason to see if he couldn't clear the air with Kimberly, because whatever else she was, or might some day be to him, they had been friends for years before they had stopped. He didn't know what could be salvaged from their friendship, but for the first time in years, he was interested in finding out.

* * *

Conner dropped into bed, the combined physical and mental exhaustion of the last few days settling on him like a ton of bricks, and he didn't think it would take him long to fall asleep. However as time passed, he realised that no matter how tired he was or how sluggish his thoughts felt, sleep was escaping him. He finally gave up with the idea, throwing the cover off him, and just lying in bed, staring at the ceiling of his room.

Boredom taking over, he finally sat up, and rubbed his eyes as he looked around his dark room. He got up, and wandered to the window, and tried to understand why he couldn't sleep. He hadn't had a single dream since he woke up from the fight, but he was sure that he had slept anyway. It was disturbing, to be so sure of something, but have no conscious recollection of it. As he looked out over the quiet and peaceful road outside his house, he wondered if he was ever going to sleep well again.

And in the back of his mind, like a pleasant laughter, he heard the voice he had heard only once before, in the white place, speak to him. "Soon."

Tbc…


	20. Chapter 20

**Name:** Ascendancy  
**Chapter 20:** The Many Prices Of Failure  
**Disclaimer:** I own nothing, I am nothing. I am one with the gestalt. Sue him  
**Archiving:** It's yours if you want it, just let me know where it's posted.  
**Summary:** Zeltrax faces off with the Rangers, and Kira's identity is discovered.  
**Shoutout:** To Jeannine, for writing a fic that stirred in me the desire to write again myself.  
**Shoutout: **_The Real Vampire,_ small cliffhangers grow. ;-) _Jenna Summers_, glad you liked the Kimberly/Conner interaction. As to whether that voice was the grid or something……_Ghostwriter_, All your questions will be answered eventually. _Jedi4Jesus_, thank you, glad to still see you're with me. _C2_, Hope you're having a better week this week. Enjoy this next installment._Daniaryezel_, thanks for the compliment, I'll try and keep the morals in all the characters.

* * *

Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat.  
- F. Scott Fitzgeralds

* * *

Trent blinked his eyes a few times as he and Kira left the Theater. They had decided that a movie was a good place to start dating, and had gone to see one they both wanted to see, so it hadn't been boring, but it hadn't been his idea of a romantic date either and he couldn't figure out why. He snorted to himself that it was probably because they hadn't said more than a dozen words to each other since they had first arrived, and he was fairly sure it was because they knew how to be friends, but weren't sure how to be more than that.

Walking side by side, he decided to grab the bull by the horns, and make sure they were at least talking to each other. "That was a good movie," he said, and almost immediately wanted to hit himself for having said something that stupid, and beside him Kira shrugged.

"Yeah, I guess."

Trent swallowed and tried again. "You look good in the moonlight."

The comment brought Kira up short, and she turned towards him, a smile on her face. "There is no moonlight Trent, we've got a storm coming in off the bay."

He blanched slightly, and could feel the heat rising of his face. "Oh right," he mumbled, and started to move again, but Kira stopped him.

"Thanks though. I know we're not good at this, but points for effort." She stepped closer to him, and slipped her arms around him in a hug that could in no way be interpreted just as a friendly one. Trent was content to let her set the pace, and just let himself enjoy the nearness of her, the scent in her hair, and the feel of having her close. For a moment, standing on the windy street not far from the cinema, he was content.

He was therefore only slightly surprised when a few seconds later, his and her communicators beeped, and they quickly disengaged. Kira, looking a little put out, raised hers to her mouth after checking that there was no-one nearby.

"Figures," she muttered, then keyed in the communicator. "Kira here, go."

"It's Hayley, sorry to interrupt your date, but we just got a spike in the scanners that matches Zeltrax's weapons, it's only a block from where you are," Hayley explained, and both Kira and Trent turned to follow the directions she gave to where the scanner had picked up Zeltrax. They might have been young and dating, but they were also Power Rangers, and they wouldn't have ignored the call even if they had wanted to.

They ran round the corner of the street Hayley had identified, and saw quite a sight. Elsa, with one person over her shoulder, was walking side by side with Zeltrax, who had another person slung over his shoulder. Kira noticed a discarded can of what looked like hairspray on the ground, and smiled to herself. These two had put up a fight.

"Hey Zeltrax," she called out as the two Rangers came to a stop. "Someone give you more of a fight than you wanted?"

The cyborg turned round, and as he did, both Trent and Kira saw the face of the person he was carrying. Devin Del Valle, which made the blonde hanging off Elsa's shoulder almost certainly Cassidy. The resident reporter and her cameraman appeared to have been knocked out, probably after Cassidy had tried to use the hairspray as a poor woman's mace. Zeltrax dumped Devin of his shoulder, and the unconscious boy collapsed in a heap on the ground as the cyborg drew his weapon.

"Not enough of one." he growled. "Elsa, take her back, I'll deal with these Rangers."

Elsa looked at him with an expression of pure disbelief for a moment, then just nodded and started running in the opposite direction of the Rangers. The two teens glanced at each other and nodded.

"Dino Thunder power, Hah," Kira shouted, as Trent called for the White Ranger power, and in moments they were both clad in their armor. As they stood opposite from Zeltrax, a yellow clad head turned to a white one.

"We can't let Elsa get away," Kira said. "Whatever they want Cassidy for, it's not going to be good."

"I know," Trent replied, then drew his feather-sword. "Can you catch her?"

"Yeah,"

"Then go," Trent said and launched himself at Zeltrax swinging for all he was worth, giving Kira an opening. She dodged past the fight, and took off at a dead run as the sound of an engine suddenly started. She tore round the corner, just as the small motorboat was beginning to move, and she knew she'd never be able to catch it. She slid to a stop at the edge of the dock and grimaced under her mask.

"Fine," she said, slamming her hand into her palm. "Two can play at that game. Pterodactyl-Zord," she yelled, raising her hand. It took a bit longer than usual, because Dr. O hadn't brought the Brachio-Zord out, but within a minute there was an ear splitting screech as a massive yellow form flew overhead. Kira grinned and jumped straight up, being drawn into the cockpit of the Zord, and placing her hands on the control-globe.

With determination, and ignoring the stormy night sky, she brought the Zord into a turn, and took off after Elsa.

* * *

Trent and Zeltrax exchanged a furious set of punches and kicks, and Trent staggered back as he realised that either Zeltrax was better trained than the last time they'd fought, or that he had upgrades. The Hispanic man was about to launch into a new attack, when the sound of running footsteps brought him up short, and he grinned in relief under his mask when he saw a Ethan, Conner and Tommy arrive beside him.

"Nice of you guys to show up, I think Zeltrax has been using robo-steroids," he joked as he dropped into a fighting stance.

"Not a problem," Conner replied, dropping into a ready stance. "Now let's deal with him, Dino thunder power up, Hah!" he called out as the three of them quickly joined the already morphed Trent. Ethan turned to look at Conner in his suit and angled his head sideways, in obvious question.

"You still look the same dude, what about this new suit Kira mentioned?" he asked and Conner shrugged

"Beats me Ethan," the Red Ranger replied. Secretly he was a little relieved that he was still in his normal suit. He hadn't seen the same as Kira had, as he'd been overwhelmed by the white light in the hospital, but he wasn't sure how he felt about giving up the red. "I haven't exactly been spending all my time thinking about the gem."

"All right," Tommy interrupted the two of them. "Let's deal with Zeltrax once and for all." The other Rangers nodded and called their support, and the four of them charged forward to meet Mesogog's henchman full on.

* * *

Kira angled the Zord through the dark clouds and down to the water. It was definitely bad weather out and even from this height she could see big waves rolling on the water. She had to use not only her own eyesight, but the Zords built in scanners to be able to track Elsa, but once she had, she knew that she could easily outrun the small boat. Elsa was taking no chances however, and every time she brought the Zord swooping in, Elsa had managed to dodge aside, and she was getting further and further out from the shore.

Kira swore to herself as Elsa hugged a wave, using it to help turn her boat to the side, and she swung the Zord round to chase. "A gun, a gun," she muttered. "My kingdom for a gun." No sooner had she said it, when she felt a screech in the back of her head, and her mind was suddenly filled with images and commands. She understood with a sense of shock that the Pterodactyl was communicating directly with her, and she realised suddenly that it was showing her that it carried a pair of wingtip blasters.

"Whoah," the Yellow Ranger breathed, as she gave the command the Zord had told her about, and felt rather than saw the wingtips of the Zord change to accommodate what looked like two very large energy cannons. She smiled a grim smile, as she swooped in on Elsa's boat one more time, and ordered her Zord to fire. Bright purple shots lanced toward the boat, hitting the water maybe ten feet in front of it, sending huge plumes of water into the sky, and Kira almost whooped for joy when Elsa hurriedly brought the boat to a halt.

Activating the outboard speakers, she grinned at the woman in the boat. "Stand down Elsa, there's nowhere you can run to now."

Elsa, standing on the boat right in front of the hovering creature shouted back at her through the storm. "Never." To Kira's horror, she then grabbed Cassidy, and held her up for Kira to see. "You want to shoot me?" the cyborg screamed, and then with a mighty heave threw Cassidy off the boat. "Or save the girl." While Kira's mouth dropped at what Elsa had done, the Cyborg kicked the boat into gear, and took off in a direction that was away from Cassidy and Kira.

There was no doubt in Kira's mind that she had to save Cassidy, and she realised almost instantly that she'd never be able to find Elsa again in this storm if she did. The decision was simple though, she could save a life, or catch the bad guy. In this case saving an innocent, if annoying life was more important than catching Elsa, she'd get another chance at that sooner or later. . She tapped in a few commands into the globe-shaped console she was at. "I'll be back", she told the Zord before leaping out of the cockpit and diving towards the water.

As she fell towards it, she tapped her temple activating the night-vision enhancement so that she'd be able to see better underwater, and then let loose her Ptera-scream. She focused it on a small spot where she was going to hit the water, and focused it as tightly as she could to break up the surface and make the dive less painful. It didn't change that she had jumped from a good thirty feet up, and that hitting the water hurt, but she recovered quickly and took a deep breath, diving underwater.

She looked around for Cassidy, and thankfully the fact that the water was cold, and her body still warm meant she could just about see the girl sinking, and she began to swim with all her might. Her lungs were beginning to burn as she made her way through the dark water, and even her suit wasn't able to completely ward of the cold.

The filters Hayley had installed in the masks to ward of dust and airborne toxins hadn't been designed with total submersion in mind, and water rushed into the helmet. Just as she was starting to run low on breath, she managed to snag Cassidy's jacket by the hood, and she started making her way up. Finally, she couldn't hold her breath in anymore, and explosively exhaled, trying to breath in some of the air before the water deprived her of all the air. Kira screamed in her mind as she inhaled some water and began to cough underwater, and darkness closed around her.

* * *

Zeltrax staggered under the combined attack of the four Rangers, with one blow landing after the other. He was fighting for all he was worth, but he knew that there was no way he could win this fight, and because of the portal network being down, there was also no way that he could escape. Deep in his heart, what was left of Terrance Smith knew that he was going to be going down for good this time. Elsa was nowhere to be found, and as the Yellow Ranger had gone after her, had just as likely been sunk as escaped.

"No, it can't end like this," he growled, as he held his aching chest after taking a blow from the Tyranno-staff. The Rangers lined up across from him, and the Red Ranger looked like he was about to use the Shield of Triumph, when Tommy Oliver stopped him.

Zeltrax almost screamed in frustration. Once again Tommy Oliver had cost him everything he cared about. First in his life as Smitty, and now as Zeltrax, because there was no way that the Black Ranger would let him leave unharmed.

"No Conner," he heard the man say. "Zeltrax is my responsibility." He raised the Brachio staff in an almost formal pose, and Zeltrax forced his knees upright and held his own weapon out in the same fashion.

"Very well Dr. Oliver," he said. "If it's one last pass you want, I'll give you one. This is the second time you've destroyed my life. You might as well finish the job."

"I didn't destroy your life Smitty," Tommy responded, and there was a deep sadness in his voice. "Mesogog did that. It's not too late to get it back. Stop this, and maybe we can help you."

Under his mask, Zeltrax almost smiled at the mushy sentiment. Still the same old Tommy Oliver, and he shook his armor-plated head. "Never. This ends today."

For a long moment there was no reaction, then Tommy dropped into a free fighting stance. "As you wish." He said nothing else as the two of them stared at each other across the alleyway. Each from under his own mask, and from the outside, they appeared inscrutable. Both seemed to be waiting for a signal that the other Rangers couldn't see or hear. The two combatants knew when the moment came however, and charged forward at each other. Rather than their usual battle, they both just charged silently in a straight line for the other, and both swung as they passed each other.

It had all the overtones of a formal duel, and Trent shook his head as he realised that it looked to him like the same kind of final blow he'd exchanged with the White Ranger clone when they had fought their last battle. One strike, where all the defenses were down and both fighters were focused on the offense.

The two combatants slid to a stop, and Zeltrax grunted in pain. "Well done Tommy," he said, even as his sword fell from lifeless hands. "You finally ended it." With that pronouncement, Zeltrax fell forward, and the power cells that gave his suit it's energy exploded as his life-signs monitor went silent. For a brief moment everything in the alleyway was silhouetted in a red glow, before it faded, leaving the remains of Mesogog's henchman.

Conner turned to his fellow Rangers. "Ethan, Trent, take Devin out of here, and make sure he gets home okay," he said, and the two of them nodded, quickly picking up the dazed boy and leading him out of the alleyway. As they left, they could hear him groggily asking if it was really the Power Rangers, and Conner grinned to himself. It was almost a shame that they couldn't tell him. Once they were gone, Conner powered down and walked over to his teacher, who did the same.

"You okay dude?" The Red Ranger asked, putting a sympathetic hand on Tommy's shoulder. There was a bark of something that was part laughter and part anguish from the man. Conner wasn't trying to be flippant, but he knew that this had to be hard on Dr. O. After all, Smitty had been one of his friends, and unlike Trent, they hadn't been able to bring him back from the dark side.

"Don't call me dude," Tommy said reflexively, before bringing up a hand to cover Conner's. "Thank you. I'm not okay, but I will be. We gave him every chance to surrender, but it had to end somewhere."

"Another one of those hard choices you mentioned?" Conner asked, and Tommy nodded his head.

"Yes, but then, if it was easy, anyone could do it," Tommy tried to smile at that thought, but decided after a moment that he had no desire to pretend to Conner that everything was fine when it really wasn't.

"All right then, let's get you home. I know how you old people get at night in the city," Conner said with a smirk, and then snickered as Tommy glared at him. "Seriously Dr. O, let me give you a ride home. My car's only half a block away."

"Thank you Conner, for everything," Tommy said as he straightened up and turned to the mouth of the alley.

"All part of the service," the young man responded.

* * *

Blackness closed in around Kira, and the part of her brain that was trying to find a way out began to despair at having failed, not to mention the very real possibility of drowning. Suddenly Kira blinked, her coughing fit forgotten as she heard a loud clang echoing underwater. A light appeared behind her, lighting up the small, vaguely triangular room she appeared to be in, and then the water began to drain away.

Unable to believe what was happening, but grateful nonetheless, Kira tore of her helmet as soon as she could and coughed the water out of her lungs. She gulped in deep breaths of the air, promising to never take breathing for granted again. Only then did she look around and realise with a shock, that she was in the mouth of the Pterodactyl-Zord.

She ran a hand along the smooth inner jaw as she realised that the Zord must have dove into the water after her. Stunned by the revelation that the Pterodactyl had acted on its own initiative to save her life, she was momentarily distracted from the girl she had come to save and she stood in absolute awe of her mighty Zord. Her mind quickly remembered Cassidy though, and she ran to where the girl was lying still.

"I need more light," Kira said, and the light at the back of the mouth increased in intensity as a soft screech echoed around. Kira smiled. "Good girl," she said, as she placed a hand on the jaw line of the beast. Her mind was quickly taken up by the fact that Cassidy wasn't breathing, and a soft wisps of panic began to set into the Yellow Ranger's mind as she turn the girls head and began compressing her chest.

She hoped that what she was doing was right, as she hadn't ever been given any training for CPR. Everything she knew about this was from movies and TV-shows, and she had no real faith that any of them had got it right. Taking a deep breath, she leaned down and breathed into Cassidy's mouth, and then began to press again. With a sudden start, Cassidy coughed up some water and took a deep, watery breath before coughing further, and Kira sat back, the water on her face not solely the seawater, and breathing hard from both the effort and the panic that had gone with it. She closed her eyes in relief and mopped her brow with a sleeve.

It was only then that she realised that she didn't have her helmet on, and her eyes snapped open, finding the yellow helmet exactly where she had left it. Just as she began scrambling across the Zord's mouth, she caught Cassidy staring at her, the reporters eyes wide and fixed on her and the uniform she was wearing. Kira sat, half crouched and absolutely still, like a deer caught in headlights as she maintained eye-contact with the waterlogged girl.

"Kira?" Cassidy stammered in surprise.

Kira sat back on her haunches, a sigh escaping from her. There was no way that she would be able to explain this one as easily as the previous times that Cassidy had almost caught them. In fact, sitting inside a Zord, wearing a Ranger costume with the helm not five feet away, Kira couldn't come up with any explanation whatsoever. With the thought in the back of her head that Dr. O was going to be beyond pissed at her, she smiled weakly, saying the first thing that sprung to mind.

"Hey Cassidy," she said with a twitch of her head. "Surprise."

* * *

Inside Mesogog's throne-room, the mutant stood as Elsa screamed. A thin visible tendril of energy connected them as Mesogog dumped his anger, his displeasure straight into her mind. Even one who had served as long as Elsa was not spared his mental probe and the pain that went with it.

"You left him behind," told her, as he eased up on the mental attack. There was no mistaking the anger in his voice. "And you didn't bring the humans I needed for the extractor either."

Elsa gasped on the ground, and crawled towards him. "My lord, I," she stopped as he started up his probe and she howled as fire raced through her mind, and she wanted nothing better than to claw her brain out with her bare hands. She was only barely aware of him coming to stand over her.

"You failed me," he hissed. "And I warned you that I wouldn't tolerate that again." The pain in her mind eased off, only to be replaced with another pain as he lifted her by one hand and fairly well threw her across the lab. She smashed into the far wall and fell to the ground, immobilised by the impact. Her spine and back so painful that even breathing was agony.

"Seize her, and put her on the life force extractor," Mesogog ordered, and several of the drones hauled her to her feet. She wanted to struggle, but between the physical and mental damage she'd suffered in the last few minutes, she could do nothing more than weakly try and sway her body, and the drones were at full strength. Mesogog's words penetrated the fog of pain surrounding her mind, and she redoubled her struggles.

"No, no please lord Mesogog, I've always served you loyally," she begged of him as the drones strapped her into the device, and he loomed over her again, and Elsa fell silent as she saw a total lack of mercy or compassion in his eyes. Never before had she realised that as Mesogog didn't consider himself human, he also put no stock in human traits such as the ones she needed right now.

"Loyalty without intelligence is useless to me Elsa. And this way, you'll still serve me."

He threw the switch, and Elsa screamed once more as the device drained every thought, every hope and dream and fear out of her. Every memory she had ever had vanished like snow before the sun, and everything that Elsa might have one day been was blotted out in a moment. Her very life was drained by the device, and in little more than a few seconds, nothing was left of the cyborg known of Elsa Randall but a shriveled husk. It vanished off the table as the life force extractor began to hum, and Mesogog turned away. Elsa and Zeltrax had been with him a long time, and he had watched the destruction of Zeltrax at the hands of the Rangers today

It was better this way, he decided after a moment. No more distractions and no more trusting others to do what he should have done himself. He had his weapon, and once the machine was finished, he'd have another power booster, and with the two combined, there was no way he could lose, even when fighting the Rangers directly.

Elsa and Zeltrax wouldn't have suited the world he intended to build anyway, and while he might regret the loss of his tools, it meant that he wouldn't have to clean them up later. The machine finished it's work, and Mesogog opened the hatch, retrieving a vial of green liquid. He held it up to the light, watching the reflections through the pale green substance, and had he been capable of smiling, he would have.

"Yes," he said. "Enjoy your victory Rangers. In two days when the portal network recovers, you will learn what my wrath is, and you will rue the day you chose to be Rangers.

tbc...


	21. Chapter 21

**Name:** Ascendancy  
**Chapter 21:** It's The Waiting That Kills You  
**Disclaimer:** I own nothing, I am nothing. I am one with the gestalt. Sue him  
**Archives:** Sure, just let me know where  
**Summary:** Kira talks to Cassidy, while Tommy tells the Rangers a bit about Zordon's rules, and why they mattered.  
**Shoutout:** To Jeannine, for writing a fic that stirred in me the desire to write again myself.  
**Updates:** Hi all. Let me first apologise for the extremely long wait between chapters 20 and 21 of this fic. I have had, to put it in non-hyperbolic terms, the worst year of my life. Between being just one step from bankruptcy, blowing out my left knee and various and sundry other disasters that have plagued me, writing fanfiction became a fairly low priority.

However, the fact that I wasn't writing, didn't mean I wasn't thinking about this fic, or the story that I still intend to finish. I have my life back in enough order that barring another disaster there won't be another break like the one that's just happened. Here's hoping I haven't missed a step having not written anything for 8 months or so.

* * *

It's important to our friends to believe that we are unreservedly frank with them, and important to the friendship that we are not.  
- Mignon McLaughlin

* * *

"Thanks for the ride," Tommy said as he got out of Conner's car as they arrived back at Valencia Drive. He wasn't quite resolved to having killed Zeltrax for good, and it had definitely been a good idea to have Conner take him back. He hadn't said so in so many words, but he had come to value the sudden maturity that the events surrounding the white Gem and the alternate Kimberly had given the Red Ranger. 

The additional maturity was doing him good, Tommy decided. So it was with some surprise when Conner didn't even say goodnight, but just stayed in the car. With a slight internal shrug, he walked round to the drivers side of the car, and looked in. "Are you all right?"

"I don't know Doctor O," he responded, finally unbuckling his own seatbelt. "Ever since Kimberly put me in the hospital I've been having these weird flashes. One second I'm doing something normal, the next I'm in this white place and someone is telling me something. Then I'm back where I started, and it's like it happened in an instant."

"Why didn't you tell me about this sooner?" Tommy demanded, concern and anger warring on his face and in his voice. "Conner, if something is trying to influence you, we need to find out what, and help you."

"I know that," he responded as they walked up to the house. "But so far it's just been information, but just now, when the car stopped, it was more violent," he shrugged. The word obviously wasn't the one he wanted, but it was close enough. "The white place told me that an abomination had happened, that something had hurt it."

"Hurt it?" Tommy repeated. "You mean something hurt the grid itself?"

"Yeah, I think so. And who do we know that's looking for an immense amount of power," the two of them were silent as neither needed to say so out loud. "I'm going to call Kira. Something bad is going to go down Doctor O. I'm sure of it." Tommy nodded and began heading towards Dino-Ops, where Hayley was still monitoring the other rangers.

Conner lifted his communicator to his arm, still trying to get used to where Hayley had installed the new flash drive to it to record their missions. It meant they could do far better combat assessment after them, but Conner's main concern was that it had to be attached to both the bracelet's they wore, and to the Morphers, because they rarely fought entirely morphed. The bracelets were an odd fashion statement anyway, but the state of the art computer hardware attached to the bracelet just made it look ugly."Kira, what's your status?" He frowned when there was silence for more than a few seconds and tapped it again. "Kira, it's Conner are you there?"

Then he did hear something on the line, but it was something from his worst fears. Rather than hearing Kira, he could have sworn he heard Cassidy demand to know if Conner was a Ranger too and he felt the blood drain from his face. Doctor O. had warned them, Hayley had warned them, that the Dino rangers tendency to use their real names was going to expose them sooner of later, and it sounded like it had just happened.

"I'll call you back," he heard Kira snap, and the line went dead, and Conner did the only thing he could think of doing. "Doctor O," he yelled as he took off down the stairs to the Lair. "We have a problem!"

* * *

Ethan and Trent had arrived very shortly after Conner's aborted chat with Kira, and had heard that Cassidy apparently knew at least two of the Rangers identities. They weren't taking it well, and it had taken Hayley raising her voice to get them all to quieten down. Tommy made a quick call to Kira, telling her to bring Cassidy back to the lair. He never used his own name, and it was obvious Kira wanted to ask why she had to bring Cassidy back, but thankfully she didn't ask on an open line. 

That done, Tommy turned to the others, now sitting more or less quietly around Dino-Ops. "Everyone listen," Tommy said into the silence. "Hayley, I want you to clear out. Regardless of what Cassidy may or may not know, I want to keep you as much out of the spotlight as I can." Hayley looked like she was going to protest, but Tommy just kept talking. "You own a youth-club Hayley. If your identity as our resident tech-goddess is compromised then Cyberspace might become a target."

Hayley took a deep breath and visibly quelled her desire to disagree with him, nodding finally. "You keep me up to date Tommy Oliver," she ordered as she grabbed her bits and went up the stairs. Tommy nodded absent-mindedly, but was already mentally moving on.

"When Kira gets here, I want everyone except Conner suited up. We probably can't stop Cassidy from finding out who we really are, but we aren't going to make things easier than we have to."

As he thought about what else to do, he realised it was time to explain to his Rangers some of the history and legacy of the power they wielded, and why Zordon had originally given them strict commands to not let anyone know they were Rangers.

There were a multitude of reasons, ranging from the fact that people who wanted to meet the Rangers were at risk, as were risk-tourists. Family members would range from the horrified to the hounded by the media depending on the family, especially considering the very first Rangers and the Dino-Thunder rangers were technically teenagers, no matter how capable they were.

And there was that other reason, the one Zordon had confided in him years ago after he had revealed himself to his brother to stop David from rushing into the Machine Empire's clutches in a misguided attempt to save him. As those thoughts flicked through his head, he noticed that while Trent and Ethan had actively panicked, Conner hadn't. Conner was the practical kind, he didn't like making mistakes, but he didn't tend to dwell on them either. He had been bouncing a practice ball he kept at Dino-Ops between his hands ever since he'd sat down, but Tommy hadn't missed the fact that Conner had been quietly staring at him the whole time.

"Something on your mind Conner?" Tommy finally asked him.

"Just wondering why you aren't panicking with the rest of us?" he responded. "If I didn't know better, it'd say you weren't worried at all."

"You'd be wrong," Tommy stated with certainty. "But this isn't the first time Rangers have been at risk of being found out. Once this is all over, remind me to tell you about the year that Bulk and Skull tried their best to find out who we were. As inept as the two of them were at almost anything they did, Jason and I did sit down to work out a few contingencies in case they got lucky."

He sat down and gestured for Trent and Ethan to do so as well. "We never had to use the plans, but after Astronema's Countdown when Andros and I built the Ranger database, I did include the ideas. Lightspeed didn't need them of course because they were public anyway, and the other teams never needed to use them."

"What kind of ideas?" Ethan asked, obviously trying to get his mind off the idea that Cassidy was going to figure out he was the Blue Ranger. He had never told her, but he did know that she was going to be furious when she found out that the guy she almost dated was one of her elusive targets.

"There were two basic ideas we had. The first was to appeal to the fact that the secrecy is more than just some random order given by Zordon. The secrecy had to be maintained to allow us to remain safe and unhindered when we weren't being power Rangers and for our families to be able to continue their lives. More than that though, anyone who knew we were Rangers would be put at risk as a possible target."

Ethan looked at Conner. "Yeah, we kind of figured that might be the reason when we talked about it after you had to morph in front of your buddy last week."

Tommy nodded. He wasn't surprised that they'd talked about it given how rare it was that someone learned about them being Power Rangers, having it happen twice in one week was definitely cause for discussion. "The second, was to appeal to people's innate natures. Most people would rather be on the inside and have to keep a secret, than tell it and be on the outside."

"So you thought that if someone found out, you'd promise to tell them more if they'd keep it a secret?" Trent asked as he thought about the idea. It made some sense actually, because the promise of more information would be worth more than just the identities of the Rangers, and if you befriended a person who had found out the secret, made them part of the world, then by the time they came to publishing the information, they might realise why that would do more harm than good. "Think it'll work Doctor O?"

Tommy shook his head. "I don't know. I only met Cassidy a few months ago, and really don't know her well enough to know which way she'll jump." He admitted. "And, if those both fail, there is a third option. If Cassidy decides to go public, I make a phone call and we go public first." He walked over to the console and tapped in a few more controls. A picture appeared of Captain William Mitchell, the commander of the Lightspeed Rescue organisation.

"You probably don't know that Captain Mitchell and I have been acquaintances for some time now, and he has already agreed that if it would ever be necessary for a Ranger team to go public, then he'd be willing to handle the public relations for us. After all, the identities of the Lightspeed Rangers were publicly known."

He stopped there, deciding not to tell the other Rangers about the dark side he'd uncovered in Lightspeed. The fact that Captain Mitchell was attached to a government project called Avalon whose sole mission statement was to create weaponry capable of fighting Ranger villains if the Rangers ever failed. Of course, weapons that could hunt the average Ranger bad-guy could also be used to hunt Rangers.

Tommy knew that he was one of maybe a handful of people outside the project who knew about it, and that was because between Hayley's skill, and Kerovian computers donated by Andros, not even the United States government databases were secure. He could hardly blame the government for wanting a way to protect itself, especially after Astronema's countdown, but he was still very leery about how much the military seemed to know about the Rangers themselves, including some of their identities. However so far, they'd kept it to themselves.

"Must have been nice for the Lightspeed Rangers," Ethan mused. "But don't the rules of not telling people go back way further than Lightspeed, all the way to the guy who gave the original Rangers their powers?"

"Yes, and no. Zordon told all of the original Rangers, and me when I finally joined that we had to keep our identities a secret, or risk losing the protection of the power." Tommy smiled sadly at the memory. "When I had to tell my brother David I was a Power Ranger to stop him from running off to try and save me from the Machine Empire, I was terrified that Zordon was going to strip me of my Ranger Powers." he took of his bracelet with the black Dino-Gem and concentrated until it morphed into his Brachio Morpher and he then held it out to the others.

"Zordon would never have done that. Losing the protection of the power meant something else. Every Morpher, man made, built from Dino Gems, or Zeo Crystal fragments, or Power coins sends out a low level hypnotic field. Anyone wearing a morpher somehow becomes non-descript. People don't notice that you and your friends always wear large amounts of a single colour, or that the group of you always run off when a monster attacks."

Conner nodded. "And like any hypnotic effect, once you break it, it loses it's hold on you."

"Bingo," Tommy said. "When David found out, he almost immediately realised that my friends were Rangers and could have probably picked the right colours too."

"And now that Cassidy knows," Trent continued. "She'll notice that Ethan and I are always hanging around wearing blue and white, and that you started wearing a lot of black since the year began."

"That's why I don't think there's any point in trying to keep the five of us out of the firing line. Hayley should still hopefully go unnoticed, but we're just to obvious for that." Tommy explained and the others nodded in understanding. "And for what it's worth, we probably have a better chance of convincing her with all of us, because then it isn't just spilling one persons secret, but several."

He was about to say something else, when he heard the cave-wall entrance begin to open. He got up from his chair and nodded to the others, pulling the key for his Brachio morpher from his pocket as Ethan and Trent reached for their own.

"It's show time boys."

* * *

Growing up Kira Ford had heard all the cliché's about time. It flew when you had fun, it healed all wounds and so on. However never had she appreciated just how slowly time could go when everything fell to pieces. As she stared at Cassidy, who was staring she had no idea what to do at all, other than try and stall. She had no way to hide herself being a Ranger, but she could still keep the others safe. She'd have to make sure she saw a bit less of them over the next few weeks to make sure Cassidy didn't become suspicious, but it was doable. 

She had just opened her mouth to say something when her morpher beeped at her.

"Kira, what's your status?" came Conner's voice over the link, and she looked down at it in shock. Before she had a chance to manually turn it off, her friend spoke again. "Kira, it's Conner are you there?"

If Cassidy's eyes had been comically wide before, they now resembled nothing so much as saucers. "Conner's a Ranger too?" she squeaked, and Kira sighed at what could only be considered an almost tragic turn of events.

"I'll call you back," she snapped at Conner before bringing her thumb down hard on the morpher, deactivating the line. Unfortunately, Conner's comment had made the problem about ten times worse. She keenly remembered how Cassidy had noticed that she and Ethan and Conner were hanging out at the beginning of the year, and as much as she disliked Cassidy on general principle, the girl wasn't stupid either.

However right now, Cassidy just seemed puzzled as if she was trying to work things through. "You okay over there Cassidy?" Kira asked as she retrieved her helmet.

"Yeah, actually," the blond responded. "Surprised that the soccer-jock and the wannabe pop star are Power Rangers, but now that I think about it, you two were always around when weird things happened, but then so was..." she trailed off as the rest of it caught up with her, and Cassidy looked over at Kira, a hurt look on her face. "Ethan's a Ranger as well, isn't he?"

Her communicator beeped again, saving her from answering the question, but before she could say anything she heard Doctor O's voice over the line.

"Yellow Ranger, this is Black Ranger. I need you to bring Cassidy back to Dino-Ops."

She brought the morpher to her mouth. "Are you sure about that uhm, Black Ranger?" she asked. Her confusion was genuine, as she had figured that Doctor O. would want to keep Cassidy as far away from the other Rangers as possible. As she thought about it, she realised that he must be desperate enough to try some sort of all or nothing deal with Cassidy, otherwise there was no way that he'd let her see the Lair.

"Absolutely sure," came the response after a few moments. "We'll deal with it there." If the response was short and to the point, at least Doctor O. didn't sound mad to Kira. As bad as it was to have messed up, the worst part was knowing that their mentor had trusted them to keep the secret, and she hadn't been able to.

"Okay, we'll be there in about five minutes," Kira shrugged as she got to her feet. "Come on Cassidy, I can't control the Ptera-Zord from here." She grabbed hold of the other girl and fairly well jumped towards the back of the throat of her Zord. Cassidy let out a surprised yell, that became even louder when a black hole seemed to open up and instead of being digested, the two of them landed in the cockpit of the Zord.

"Ethan's the blue Ranger isn't he?" She finally asked. "And Trent was always hanging around you guys, so he's probably one as well." She thought for a moment. "White?"

Kira sighed. "I'm not confirming or denying anything until we get back to the base."

"I'm right though aren't I, which only leaves black." She didn't seem to have an immediate idea of who that might be, for which Kira was insanely grateful. However with several minutes yet before they reached the forest outside of Doctor O's place, she figured she might as well put it to some good use.

"Cassidy, you know you can't tell anyone right?" She asked as she gave the Zord instructions on where to go. She wasn't sure what her newfound link to the Ptera-Zord meant exactly, but it was almost like she was entering into a true symbioses with her Zord.

"Are you kidding, this is the kind of news-story a career could be made on." Cassidy asked incredulously, and Kira realised that she had only a very small window to convince the reporter that there were very real consequences to the Rangers identities being on the six O'Clock news.

"So you'd ruin all of our lives for your career?" she asked sharply, and Cassidy's head whipped round in surprise.

"I'm not going to ruin your lives, I'm going to make you all famous. Won't that help you get that recording contract you're always talking about?" She seemed to be genuinely confused, and Kira suddenly understood why. To Cassidy, fame wasn't just an additional perk of the job, but it was a form of currency in a business dominated by media-personalities. The more famous the reporter, the better the chance that she'd be picked to anchor a show.

"If I got a contract after being outed as a Ranger, I'd always wonder if I got it because I was good, or because I was a Ranger. And what about the others? Would anyone believe Conner was as good at soccer as he is, if they knew he was a Ranger, or would they think that he was cheating and using his powers?" Kira challenged the other girl.

"Well, I mean surely he could just explain?" she began to ask, but Kira cut him off.

"And what about our families Cassidy?" Kira demanded, her concentration now fully on the other girl. "How do you think Conner's parents, or Ethan's parents are going to feel about their kids going out and fighting monsters every day. What happens when I get grounded by mine and there's an emergency?"

Cassidy didn't respond for a few seconds before heaving a big sigh. "You're asking me to keep the biggest news-story in Reefside a secret aren't you?" Kira nodded, and Cassidy rolled her eyes. "I mean you don't even know if your parents will ground you. Maybe they'll be okay with it?" A few seconds passed in silence while Kira just stared at Cassidy.

"Okay," the other girl finally mumbled, "They'd probably ground you till you were fifty, but Kira, this is the biggest news story in Reefside. Heck, there's an entire generation of journalists and reporters who've tried to find out who the various teams of Rangers were, and nobody's ever succeeded. This could make my career."

"All I'm asking Cassidy, is that you think about how much your career is worth to you. How many friendships, and how many ruined lives you're willing to step on to get that job you want so badly. I'm your friend Cassidy, maybe not always a good one, but a friend nonetheless. I'm asking you to help me keep this secret." Kira had chosen to talk about friendship very specifically, because her helping Cassidy get a job at a local news-station had made the two girls tentative friends if nothing else, and she could see Cassidy's eyes narrow as she realised the same thing.

A screech from the Zord interrupted their discussion however, and Kira glanced out of the cockpit to see that they had arrived. Not wanting to give Cassidy any more information than she already had, the yellow Ranger, reached out and grabbed hold of the blond reporter.

"Hold on," she said as she jumped from the cockpit. She'd asked Hayley once how the entering and exiting the Zords worked, and Hayley had said something technical that had gone straight over her head, but apparently involved momentary access to the inviso-portal network. So while she technically only jumped a foot or so, she exited the cockpit along with Cassidy and landed on the ground.

She quickly pulled the other girl into the cave system, and walked towards the entrance of the lair. Just before reaching it, she turned to Cassidy. "I don't know what the others are going to say or do," she said as she replaced her helmet. "But I just want to say that I hope you'll help us keep our secret, rather than betraying it for your own gain."

She didn't wait to see how Cassidy would react to that, but rather turned, and firmly grasped the lower jaw of the Dinosaur skeleton in the wall. As the wall started to rise, she heard the distinct sound of three people morphing and took a deep breath under her mask.

"Here goes nothing."

tbc...


	22. Chapter 22

Name: Ascendancy  
Chapter 22: Time's up.  
Disclaimer: I own nothing, I am nothing. I am one with the gestalt. Sue him  
Archives: Sure, just let me know where  
Summary: Cassidy gets the speech, and Mesogog calls out the Rangers.  
Shoutout: To Jeannine, for writing a fic that stirred in me the desire to write again myself.

* * *

There are very few monsters who warrant the fear we have of them.  
- Andre Gide

* * *

Conner watched as the others morphed, and the wall separating the lair from the tunnels lifted to show Cassidy and Kira, who was still morphed herself. The yellow Ranger looked at the others, then at him and powered down herself.

Cassidy meanwhile, was staring with wide open eyes, looking somewhat like a cross between a kid in a candy store and a deer in headlights. She took a step towards Ethan, as he waved at her.

"Hey Cassidy." It didn't seem to distract the girl at all, whose gaze was focused on the blue Ranger who seemed to be more twitchy than usual. Cassidy walked right up close, and looked at her own reflection in the opaque mask.

"Ethan?" she asked in a high-pitched voice. "That's you in there isn't it?"

Ethan sighed, and powered down, and the confusion and surprise on Cassidy's face was replaced with anger. "You jerk, why didn't you tell me you were the blue Ranger."

"He had to keep it a secret Cassidy," Trent intervened and the reporter turned her piercing gaze on him.

"Oh give me a break Trent," she fairly well spat at him. "Don't any of you have a friend who reads comics?" she sighed dramatically as Trent also demorphed, a slightly embarrassed grin on his face. "Secret identities never work for long. If Devin hadn't kept screwing up on the tapes, I'd have known months ago."

"It wasn't their decision to keep things a secret," Tommy said, stepping in front of the girl, still in his black Ranger costume. "It was mine."

"So you're the one in charge?" she asked. "Then I've got a question for you as well. What the hell is wrong with you. These guys are kids, they shouldn't be out fighting for their lives. What kind of reckless, irresponsible idiot are you?"

Ignoring the looks of amazement on Trent and Ethan's face as Cassidy came to their defense, Conner quietly made his way to where Kira was standing.

"What did you say to her?" he asked under his breath.

"Just tried to remind her that we're friends, and that friends help friends and keep their secrets." Kira responded, a somewhat confused look on her own face. "At least she seems to be getting over her shock."

Conner snorted at that, but Cassidy didn't seem to notice, her focus still on Doctor O.

Tommy stared at Cassidy, and was not nearly as surprised as his younger charges were. Cassidy might have been a self-absorbed teenager, but at heart teenagers were still social creatures, and obviously whatever Kira had told Cassidy on the flight back had helped.

Cassidy cared about several of his Rangers, and that was most likely going to be the way to get her to keep the secret. She still liked Ethan, Kira was still her friend, and if she didn't have any strong feelings towards Conner and Trent, they were still friends.

"I agree," he finally admitted. "If it had been up to me, none of them would have been chosen, but it wasn't up to me. The power chose them, not the other way round."

"Who are you?" Cassidy demanded. "I know your voice, I just can't place it."

"Power down," Tommy said, and his morph fell away from him, and if Cassidy's eyes had been wide when she first arrived, they vaguely resembled saucers now.

"Doctor Oliver?" she fairly well squeaked. "You're the black Ranger?"

Tommy looked on, somewhat confused himself now as Cassidy blushed violently and turned around, taking several deep breaths. He didn't move from where he was standing while she got herself back under control, but he resolved to talk to Conner later who seemed to be trying valiantly not to snicker as Kira thumped him on the arm.

"Cassidy," he finally called out, and the young girl turned to him. "It's important that our identities are kept a secret. If people knew who we really were, then we'd be risking their lives as well," he was about to say more when Cassidy nonchalantly waved a hand in a dismissive gesture.

"Don't worry Doctor Oliver," the girl said with a surprising amount of seriousness. "Kira already convinced me that I'd be a bad friend if I told anyone. A couple of months ago that wouldn't have bothered me," she admitted. "But over the last couple of months I've realized that I'd rather have friends than not have them. I guess what I'm saying is that because of our friendship, and everything you've done and risked for Reefside, I'll keep your secret."

There was an visible feeling of relief on several of the Rangers faces as she said that, and even Tommy allowed himself to relax. Despite the near disaster, he realized that they had lucked out today.

"Of course, I'm going to insist on interviews." Cassidy continued.

"So much for lucking out," Tommy muttered under his breath. "What happened to keeping our secret?" he asked.

"Oh, I'll still do that. But you five are Power Rangers. You've been defending Reefside for months now, and there should be a record of that. I wouldn't publish them or anything, but they should be there, for the future, so that the world doesn't forget that there are real people under the masks."

Tommy thought about that for a few seconds, and realized that it wasn't that unreasonable a request as long as the video-footage wasn't made public. It would make a substantial addition to the Ranger Database to have a genuine set of recorded interviews.

"Of course I'll have to find an excuse for Devin to borrow his camera, and I'm going to have to explain to him that I'm totally over trying to find out who you are, but leave that to me."

Tommy grinned as he watched Cassidy get caught up in the excitement of a true Ranger exclusive, and was privately very proud of Kira for whatever she had told Cassidy. In fact, he was finding more and more reasons to be proud of his Rangers growing up to be good people.

As the others began to relax as well, Tommy sat back down. At least they weren't going to end up on the news.

* * *

Mesogog stalked back and forward in his lab, frustration evident even on his reptilian face at the time it was taking for the portal-network to re-align itself following the disappearance of one of the Power Sources. It was in moments like this that he knew he would miss Elsa and Zeltrax. Not that either of them had truly grasped what he intended or what it would have meant to them, but at least they could be conversed with.

The Tyranno-Drones didn't make for good conversation, and the one monster he had built with the geno-randomiser had driven him to distraction so quickly, he had destroyed that one himself rather than bothering to throw it at the Rangers. He stopped pacing for a moment and enjoyed the unique sensation of knowing that in just a short hour or two, he would have something else to throw at the Rangers, and when he did, they wouldn't know what hit them.

The moment passed, and Mesogog resumed pacing. Time, all he needed was for time to pass just a little faster.

* * *

"Thanks for walking me home," Cassidy said as she and Ethan walked back towards her house. It had been a long evening before Doctor O had called it a night, reminding everyone that they all had school the next day. Ethan had almost immediately offered to make sure Cassidy got home okay, and if no one in the room was fooled even slightly by the reasons behind the offer, no one was impolite enough to say so.

Ethan grinned at Cassidy, amazed at how good it felt to just be walking her home, and knowing that he could finally tell her the truth. He wondered absently how much of their previous relationship failure had been due to that secret that would always get in the way.

"No problem Cass. Making sure people get home safe is what we do."  
"Ethan James, a Power Ranger," Cassidy shook her head. "You know, until you took off your suit I don't think I really believed it."

"The technical term is demorphing," he responded, then saw the old fashioned look she was giving him and quickly added, "but it was scary from my end too. Doctor O has always told us to keep it a secret, and suddenly you knew. I didn't know if you'd be mad at me."

"Scared more like," she responded, somewhat withdrawn. I was almost kidnapped, almost drowned if Kira hadn't saved me. I think maybe I would have been better off staying at home tonight. I guess being angry just helped me work through the fear."

"Look Cassidy," Ethan said as they arrived at her house. "I know it's scary being part of this, but I promise you I'll do everything I can to make sure you stay safe."

"Thanks Ethan," she said with a smile. "But I think I just want to go in, and eat a whole bucket of ice-cream." She took a step towards him and kissed him on the cheek. "Goodnight Ethan."

* * *

He watched her walk up to her door and go in with a slightly dazed, but happy look on his face. "Night Cassidy."

Across town, Conner was not sleeping well. He had left around the same time as the others, but unlike Ethan and Cassidy, or for that matter Kira and Trent, he had just wanted to go home and sleep.

He hadn't slept much since he'd been hospitalized, and when he did sleep his dreams were either so non-existent, it felt like he hadn't slept at all, or they were so vivid, that he woke up more tired than before.

Today, it was the latter kind as he was bombarded with various images from the history of the Power Rangers. Regular battles, Zord battles, over and over again, with only a single thread unifying them. In each case, the Rangers had lost the battle. Rangers often lost battles only to go on and win the war. It was almost as much of a tradition as any they had, but this was different. There was an urgency to the message, and he thought that the message was a warning.

The moment he realized that, the images stopped, and a calming, soothing whiteness surrounded him.

"You understand," a voice whispered in his head. "Danger, destruction, ending, the abomination is too strong."

"How do I get stronger?" Conner asked urgently. He didn't know how his link to the morphing grid was supposed to work, but it had given him information before, and now he needed it again. Obviously whatever Mesogog had done, whatever Anton Mercer had tried to warn Trent about was directly tied to the Morphing Grid, and it was concerned.

"Call," It responded, and Conner nearly screamed in frustration. Whatever it was that was talking to him only had a very basic grasp of English, though it seemed to be getting better, and it was annoyingly vague. Taking a deep breath, he tried again to ask what it meant.

* * *

Mesogog appeared in a warehouse and glanced around appraisingly. This would do nicely as the site of the Rangers defeat. He knew he would need to attract the Rangers attention, but if they were as resourceful in their surveillance as they had been in everything else, that would not be difficult.

All he would need, was to trigger their alarm systems, and that was easy enough to accomplish. He checked his equipment one last time, making sure that he had several vials of his new Dino-enhancer with him, and of course, his gift for the Rangers securely strapped to his other side.

He was ready, and as he heaved a large piece of equipment over his head and threw it at another one, he knew that the final battle against the Rangers was about to begin.

"Rangers!" he roared into the darkness. "I am Mesogog, and I have come for you."

* * *

Conner sat up in bed as his Morpher beeped on the nightstand beside him, waking him up and chasing the remains of his dream away. Rubbing the sleep out of his eyes with one hand, he picked it up, putting his concern about what the Grid had been trying to tell him aside. "Conner here, go."

"Conner, sorry to wake you, but Mesogog has appeared in the city," came Doctor O's voice. Conner felt a shiver travel up his spine as he took in the information, and suddenly wished his throat wasn't so dry.

"Mesogog?" he asked. "The big lizard is in the city himself?" In all of their battles they'd never faced Mesogog directly. In fact, despite the fact that Kira, Trent and Doctor O had met Mesogog at one time or another none of them had ever fought him directly, and Conner McKnight who had just come off a dream warning him about needing more power was suddenly worried.

"Have you called the others?" he asked as he gathered his thoughts. "Because if Mesogog wants to play, I want everyone there, and in Super-Dino from the start."

"Conner," came Doctor O's voice over the line. "What aren't you telling me?"

"If Mesogog is in the city, then he's waiting for us. You know this is a trap right?"

"Yes, but we have to respond anyway." There was silence for a moment, and then he responded. "Bike's on it's way. Mesogog is in the warehouse on 125th street. We'll meet you there."

The line went silent, and Conner snuck out of the window and leapt to the ground. "Yeah," he said to himself. "See you there."

* * *

Conner brought the bike to a halt, and fairly well leapt off it, and his booted feet hit the ground running. He glanced to his side where the Kira and Trent's vehicles were already parked, and he could hear the sound of Doctor O's quad approaching in the distance.

He didn't wait for the others as he ran into the warehouse, and slid to a stop beside Trent and Kira. Like him, the two had wasted no time in Rangering up, but to his surprise, it looked like Mesogog hadn't made a move yet from where he was standing at the opposite end of the warehouse.

That worried Conner more than anything. If Mesogog was that confident in his powers that he could afford to wait for them all to be here, then whatever Mercer had been trying to warn them about had to be powerful indeed.

"He done anything?" he asked his two friends.

"Not yet, just stands there waiting, we figured we'd wait as well so we can get him together," Kira responded and Conner nodded. It was a good move, and one he approved of wholeheartedly. Especially when a few moments later Doctor O arrived, and a few moments after that Ethan skidded into the warehouse.

"Good," Mesogog snarled as the five of them lined up. "Now that you are all here, we shall end this foolishness, and your lives as well. I shall then take your gems, and recreate the world in my own image."

"You talk to much Mesogog," Conner snapped, drawing his Tyranno-staff. "Let's get him!" At his command the five Rangers sprang into action. They attacked Mesogog in pairs, Conner and Ethan first, followed by Kira and Trent, with Doctor O providing the finishing touch.

It was a good plan, one that took advantage of the various strengths of the Rangers, and provided Mesogog with a lot of places to keep his eyes on, but somehow the Dinosaur managed it. Mesogog blocked every blow from the Rangers, Smashing Ethan to the ground, and sending Conner flying through some nearby boxes. When the second wave hit him, he managed to throw Kira straight into Doctor O. With Ethan and Conner already dealt with, that left Trent facing the monster by himself, and as good as Trent was, he wasn't that good.

Mesogog seized him by the throat and held him up close. "Foolish boy. You will pay for that betrayal."

"The only thing my father betrayed was a monster," Trent bit out, kicked hard on Mesogog's chest hoping to dislodge the hand around his neck. Mesogog staggered back from the force of the kick, but didn't release his grip. Instead he grinned nastily, then swung round and heaved Trent through the nearby wall like he was throwing a Javelin.

Conner tried to focus on the battle as Trent smashed through the side of the building, and it was obvious that Mesogog was as tough as any enemy they had ever faced. "Super-Dino Mode!" He shouted as white blades extended from his arms and legs. Transformation complete, he leapt at Mesogog again, and this time found that he could keep up with the man-mutant.

Not quite enough to take him on by himself, but he was heartened, as it meant that the five of them, all in Super-Dino should be able to handle him. As he went crashing to the ground from a blow that he had missed blocking by inches, he saw something that made his blood run cold. Mesogog was laughing.

"Come now red Ranger," he spoke as Conner forced himself to his feet. Conner saw Kira and Doctor O doing the same thing, while Ethan went to check on Trent. "Do you really think I hadn't planned for your improved mode as well,"

"Give it up Mesogog," Doctor O ordered as he came to his feet as well. "There's five of us and one of you, and we will never stop until we've beaten you."

"I suspect that's true," Mesogog allowed. "Then let's end this." He reached into a pocket on his belt and drew out a small disk, maybe six inches across and two deep, and threw it nonchalantly at Conner.

Pure reflex made him catch it, and as he glanced at it, he saw a timer counting down from three to two. His eyes went wide under his helmet as he started to spin around, barely noticing Mesogog teleporting out as the timer went to one second.

He had barely begun to raise his arm to throw the device away as it went to zero, and the world vanished in a flash of fire and pain.

* * *

In Dino Ops, the blood drained out of Hayley's face, as several of her surveillance camera's went dead in the warehouse district, and other camera's showed the warehouse the rangers were in go up in a huge explosion.

"Guys?" she called frantically into her mic. ""Anyone?"

tbc…


	23. Chapter 23

**Name:** Ascendancy  
**Chapter 23:** Mesogog triumphant  
**Disclaimer:** I own nothing, I am nothing. I am one with the gestalt. Sue him  
**Archives:** Sure, just let me know where  
**Summary:** With the Rangers destroyed, Mesogog sets his sights on Reefside.  
**Shoutout:** To Jeannine, for writing a fic that stirred in me the desire to write again myself.  
**Notes: **_Realvampire, _Sorry to keep you waiting. :)

* * *

But there is suffering in life, and there are defeats. No one can avoid them.  
- Paulo Coelho quotes

* * *

Mesogog roared with laughter as he arrived back in the control room of his island fortress. He walked over to the scanner and set it for the warehouse district, and was pleased. His explosive had worked far better than even he could have imagined, and of the building itself, nothing but rubble remained.

He activated the power scanner to locate the Dino-Gems so that he could go in and recover them, and just as suddenly, his good mood vanished. The scanner was no longer detecting five Dino-Gems. In fact, he was no longer detecting any active emissions from the gemstones at all.

"No," he growled as a second scan confirmed it. The blast had been too strong, and he had damaged or broken the very things he needed to change the world. With a roar of primal rage he raised his fists and smashed them into the console. His strength was far greater than an average human and the console cracked and shattered under his pounding. The anger having overtaken him, he used his claws and physical strength to tear the console into pieces, before doing the same to the rest of the chamber.

It was almost ten minutes later when, control room in smoking ruins that he finally calmed down enough to think about what to do next. Obviously without the gems he'd need another power source. He could commit to capturing untold numbers of humans to try and feed them through the life-force extractor, but that would take far to long to power his weapons.

Still furious at his own miscalculation, he decided then that the return of his perfect world could wait, and that first he was going to take out some of his frustrations on the city of Reefside. Looking at the map that Elsa had procured months ago, he spotted a bright red X which indicated the home of Tommy Oliver, and more than likely their home base.

"Yes," he hissed to himself. "Let's start there."

* * *

Hayley frantically tried to add more power to the scanners in Dino-ops, trying to get a reading of some kind on the Rangers. She had moved on from disbelief to the closest she'd been to a true panic since a possessed Tommy had come at her in the mountains several years ago. Unfortunately, she was also a woman of science, and knew her own technology better than anyone else. 

She had valiantly tried for the last ten minutes to convince herself that it couldn't be true, that the Rangers couldn't have been defeated so fast, so totally, but the evidence didn't lie. The gem's were no longer visible, which meant they were either very badly damaged or they'd been destroyed. The Ranger's communicators weren't tracking anymore either, which meant that they were no longer functional, and he visual pickups hadn't found a trace of any of the Rangers.

She bit back tears as the full weight of the situation settled onto her shoulders. She wasn't a Ranger, and had virtually no martial arts training besides some beginners Karate classes Tommy had bullied her into taking while they'd been at college. There was no way she could stand against Mesogog alone.

With that realization she calmed down slightly, because if it didn't make the situation any less horrifying, it did give her a goal to focus on, and she quickly moved to the back wall and tapped the symbol Tommy had created for the DinoThunder team. The panel it was on obediently moved to the side, to reveal the master server that kept the Ranger database.

Tommy had been quite clear with her, when they had first designed the computer setup that if the worst should happen, then the database could not fall into the hands of the bad guys. There was a specific set of instructions, that was kept in a folder that was hanging from the wall next to the server just for cases like this, and she snatched it down and pulled over a chair.

It didn't take her long to complete the instructions, as she already knew them. She had grabbed the folder to be sure of the details. First she activated a program that would automatically download the most recent copy of the database and DinoThunder mission logs to the off-site backup that Cam Watanabe had kept at the Wind Ninja academy, along with the second copy that went to computers in the basement of the house Andros and Ashley shared in Angel Grove.

Once that was complete, she set the computers apocalypse program. It was a piece of software that was a combination of shredder and extremely virulent virus that when activated would destroy all the information on the computers, and then force the processors to over-clock themselves and deactivate the fans. Within a very short period of time, the processors would overheat, and cause irreparable damage to the computers.

Before she activated it however, she hesitated. There was one last contingency to consider. She had long since known about project Avalon, the military funded program designed to monitor the Rangers and develop weapons to fight their enemies if they ever fell. Tommy had never trusted that they were as altruistic as it sounded, but if ever there had been a time for the military to prove that it was on the Ranger's side, now was it.

She navigated to a specific folder on the computer, and typed in a password, followed by a second password and finally a third. It opened up a program folder that contained all of the Avalon data she had teased out of the government computers using her own skills and the Kerovian computers she'd acquired from Andros. She then triggered a program that would download part of the database, along with a personal message that Tommy had recorded over a year ago, straight to the email address of the current man in charge of Avalon.

She was about to start the apocalypse program, when the entirety of Dino-Ops shuddered. In alarm, she looked at the camera's that surrounded the house, and swallowed nervously as she realized that Mesogog, the size of several large office-blocks was standing over the house.

Dino-Ops heaved as if it was a tin can that had been kicked and Hayley was thrown from her chair as Mesogog's gigantic fist smashed into the house, leveling the structure, and damaging the security-walls that surrounded the underground lair. It had been built to last and Hayley was insanely grateful for that as she surged back to her feet and triggered the program, erasing all the data on the computers.

However, with Mesogog standing outside the house, obviously intent on destroying it, there wasn't anywhere she could run to, and Hayley could only stare as Mesogog pulled back his fist for another strike.

Absently she wondered if it would hurt.

* * *

Captain Taylor Earheart walked down the corridors of Turtle Cove AFB, curious as to why she'd been brought back from her patrol-route and given priority orders to report to the general's office. 

She didn't know much about general Cathles beyond the obvious. He was a competent military commander, a good leader, and the man she reported to every moment she wore the uniform. He was also the man who had promoted her several months ago, and while she had been very pleased with the promotion, she also hadn't been sure why she had received it. Unfortunately for her, the general really didn't need to explain himself to his subordinates.

As she approached his office, the general's secretary stood up and walked straight for the office door and opened it for her, which was another strange event. She entered the office, took two steps in, and came to attention with a salute.

"Captain Earheart, reporting sir." Her eyes flicked round the office in an old engrained habit searching for threats. The fact that she knew intellectually that she was unlikely to be ambushed in the most secure office on the base did nothing to halt the reflex.

However, she was unable to completely keep the surprise off her face, when she realized that not only was there someone else here, but she knew the civilian sitting in the other chair across from the desk. Years of military training meant she managed to stop the impulse to as why Eric Myers, formerly of the Time Force Rangers was here.

The general didn't miss her reaction and nodded towards the chair. "Welcome captain. I understand you know Eric Myers?"

Taylor frowned at the tone of the question, but responded promptly. "Yes sir, we've met a few times socially."

An eyebrow was raised, but as the general didn't ask her to elaborate she didn't. First rule of the military was that when talking to the senior officer on base, you spoke only when spoken to.

"Eric is here, as you are Captain, because we appear to have a crisis on our hands," he took two of the three file folders on his desk and passed them to the people sitting across from him. "While mister Myers is technically a civilian, the Silver Guardians were co-opted last year by the government, and quietly attached to a specific project." He glanced up at the two people.

"I should note that though you wouldn't normally have clearance for this information," he indicated the folder he was holding. "I have presidential authority to make an exception. Do not make me regret it."

Taylor didn't respond, her eyes fixed on the pages she was flipping through. She didn't recognize every name or face, but it was quite obvious that this was an intelligence briefing package on the current team of Power Rangers. It contained thumbnail biographies, pictures of the Rangers both in and out of morph, and as she flipped through the documents, pages and pages on their weapons, Zords, suspected allies and enemies.

Taylor's throat was dry, and her heart was beating loudly in her chest, as she risked a glance at Eric who looked only slightly less scandalized than she did at the amount of information obviously contained in this. If they knew this much about the current team, then how much did they know about previous ones.

"Sir," she began slightly nervously. "How-"

"How did we gather this information?" he interrupted with a soft smile, and she nodded her response. "Captain, when five vigilantes appeared in Angel Grove over a decade ago, carrying weaponry that far outstripped anything we had at the time, and began regularly battling alien monsters sent down by a sorceress bent on conquering earth, the military took an interest."

He chuckled at the shocked look on both his guests faces. "A project was funded, initially designed to develop weaponry to detain and capture the Power Rangers, so that we could study their weapons, and them." At Taylor's confused look he added, "Initially we didn't know if they were humans or not."

He got up from his desk and walked round to the cabinet at the far wall. "However a rather persuasive young Lieutenant-Colonel by the name of O'Neill managed to convince the project leaders that we would be better off developing weaponry to help the Rangers should they ever fail. It's hard to explain how dramatic what he said was, as he was advocating that we not only allow potentially dangerous vigilantes to run free, but advocated that we assist them were possible."

He opened the cabinet and took out another folder. It was marked 'Project Phoenix' and had been his part of the Avalon project for some years before he became the head of Avalon.

"It was an emotional speech, that spoke of hope and co-operation rather than fear. It is probably in some part due the effects of that speech that the government is even considering the alien immigration act." He returned to his seat and tapped the buzzer.

"Anne, can you scare up some sandwiches and drinks. These six AM starts always leave me hungry," he took his thumb off the buzzer after receiving an affirmative, and turned back to Taylor and Eric.

"Operation Lightspeed was our first field-test of the equipment designed by R&D, and was an unqualified success as far as we're concerned. We have since then spent substantial resources to prepare additional weapons in case they were needed, not to mention to rebuild the rescue-zords that were destroyed. We had hoped neither would be needed, but as of roughly oh-four-hundred this morning, we may not have any options."

He reached for the remote and tapped it, activating a television at the side of the office. It was obviously a tape that was paused, focusing on a pretty young blond in a city. The tape began to play a moment later.

"…eefside, where for the last several hours the menace Mesogog has been attacking the city. After attacking several houses in the suburbs it moved into the main city, and has been devastating it ever since. Many are asking, where are the Power Rangers?" The reporter seemed to steel herself. "However this reporter believes that if the Rangers could be here they would. That they aren't means they've either been beaten, or captured. They have defended this city for months, and I have no doubt they will continue to do so. This is Cassidy Cornell, reporting in Reefside."

The monitor went dark, and the general assessed the moods of Eric and Captain Earheart. Both looked grim, but determined and he was pleased by their reactions.

"Miss Cornell's feed was yanked virtually at the same time, we believe that her station isn't happy with her unconditional support of the Rangers. However she is still broadcasting, and we've moved a mobile monitoring post into the city incase she has further information."

He stopped for a moment and then turned to Eric. "Mister Myers, when project Avalon co-opted the Silver Guardians with Wesley Collins and your permissions, we explained that we would one day need you to step up to the plate. That day is today. We will provide heavy-lift transport to bring all the Silver Guardians to El Toro Airforce Base, where they'll be equipped with the latest generation of Lightspeed weapons. Additionally, the Lightspeed Rangers themselves are being shuttled back from the Lunar project and will join you there. Your orders providing you with access to military transports are waiting on my secretary's desk, along with instructions."

Eric immediately stood and nodded. "Not a problem sir, Wes is already gathering the guardians while I was at this meeting. With your permission General, I'll get going." The general nodded and Eric turned and left the room. While he walked out, Taylor had no illusions that he'd been running as soon as the door was closed and he was out of sight.

"As for you Captain, I'm not going to beat around the bush, Do you still have access to your own Ranger Powers from when you were with the Turtle Cove Rangers. I believe they were called Wildforce."

"No sir," Taylor responded after a moment. She would obviously have to think about the current situation and just how much information project Avalon knew, but there was no real reason to lie in this case. "However I can still contact the Eagle-Zord, we may need it in the fight."

"Agreed, that's why I have some orders for you to. Once you have contacted your big yellow friend, you have priority orders to take the fastest fighter we have to El Toro, where you'll take command of the Knight-Wing fighters. They are a special unit attached to Avalon who test our new weapons. You will be briefed on the working specs and then given the first of Earths fourth generation anti-monster fighters."

He passed her the folder of Project Phoenix, and she quickly read through it.

"Sir, I haven't been flight-trained for this ship," she said after a few moments. "Not wanting to disrespect my own abilities, but you can't expect me to just hop straight into the cockpit of a high performance aircraft like this," her voice was slightly strained as she said it, but that had more to do with the specs she'd been reading that it had with a lack of faith in her own abilities.

The Phoenix class fighters looked extra-ordinary, capable of ridiculous speed, immense maneuverability, and pilot survival mostly guaranteed by an inertia-dampening system. This was not a plane to take lightly.

"Correct Captain, we have qualified pilots, but what we don't have is people who have ever actually fought a monster before, aside from you. What I need you to do is to take the gunnery position in the lead plane, and provide strategic information during combat. Captain, this monster appears to have already bested one team of Rangers. We need all the experience we can get."

Taylor raised her eyes to the general, and there was no hesitancy in her voice when she spoke. "Sir, I'm an officer in the US Airforce, I swore an oath to defend this country, and so I shall."

"Good, then get going Captain, and good hunting."

* * *

The fires had died down in the warehouse district by the time Taylor left the base in Turtle Cove. They had burned extensively, but not completely. Through the rubble, a lone figure moved, searching for the last of companions. 

If there was any food left in his stomach, he would have been surprised. Having found the remains of three of his friends had caused him to vomit uncontrollably, but he couldn't leave yet. Not until he'd found Trent.

Ethan James, staggered forward, ignoring the wounds he had as he continued his search. He didn't know what he was going to do, nor did he know what had happened at the Lair, but Ethan was a Power Ranger, and he as not willing to give up just yet.

Tbc.


	24. Chapter 24

**Name: **Ascendancy  
**Chapter 24:** Flight From Reefside  
**Disclaimer:** I own nothing, I am nothing. I am one with the gestalt. Sue him  
**Archives:** Sure, just let me know where  
**Summary:** The survivors of the DinoThunder team flee Reefside, even as Avalon moves against Mesogog with some unexpected assistance.  
**Shoutout:** To Jeannine, for writing a fic that stirred in me the desire to write again myself.  
Shoutout: _Ghostwriter, sometimes it does happen, but it doesn't end the story. TheRealVampire, don't worry, there is a purpose to this.And no, the O'Neill reference wasn't intentional, but it works just as well like that. _

* * *

He who fights and runs away, lives to fight another day  
- Proverb

* * *

"Trent?" Ethan called out as he searched through the rubble of the building. He was bone-tired, hurt and emotionally devastated after the battle, but Ethan James wasn't quite at the end of his rope yet.

However he was close enough that he really wanted to find Trent, or if he was like the others, what was left of him, and get out of the flame-strewn rubble of the warehouse. Something moved off to his side, and he immediately and instinctively stepped into a defensive stance, as part of the rubble moved, without anyone being near it that he could see.

"Over here," Trent's voice called from the empty spot under the rubble, and a moment later Trent appeared, out from his camouflage. Ethan didn't even bother to hide his relief as he ran over and helped his friend to his feet. As he did, he couldn't help but notice that Trent's Dino-gem seemed to be pulsing.

"What's wrong with your Dino-gem?" he asked, as Trent took in the devastation around him. He had to keep focused, to keep his mind on practical matters.

"I don't know," Trent sighed "It just went nuts right before the building exploded. You okay?

"Not really," Ethan said, his voice barely above a whisper, and that was when Trent's eyes went wide as he took in his friend's disheveled look, and lack of companions.

"Ethan, where are the others?" He asked urgently, and when Ethan turned his head away Trent shook his own head in denial. One look at the devastated are told him everything he needed to know, but it just couldn't be true. Without quite knowing how, he found himself kneeling on the ground, with tears running down his face.

"Conner? Doctor O? Kira?" he finally asked, and Ethan just shook his head, apparently fighting back tears himself.

Ethan waited for a few seconds then took a deep breath. "Pull yourself together, Trent," he told the younger man. He knew that Trent was grieving, and so was he, but they also still had a job to do. Mourning their lost friends would have to wait until that was done, because Ethan knew that if he stopped thinking and started feeling, then he would fall apart.

Trent wasn't quite as calm about it, and surged to his feet, tear-streaked face warped in anger. "How can you be so calm", he shouted at Ethan. "Don't you care?" The moment he had said it, Trent wished he could take it back, and the hurt and shock written on Ethan's face snapped him straight out of his rage.

"Ethan, I didn't mean to," he began to explain, but Ethan cut him off.

"If I stop to care I'm going to fall apart," he told Trent coldly. "And I'm not ready to do that until we beat Mesogog." The two of them stood opposite each other, eyes locked, before Trent finally shook his head.

"I was out of line Ethan, but don't be ridiculous," he said. "Even with the two of us in Super-Dino mode we don't stand a chance against Mesogog.

"Only one of us I'm afraid," Ethan sighed, and turned his wrist to Trent. The White Ranger gasped as he saw that the socket which held the gemstone was now empty, except for a few broken fragments of blue crystal.

"What happened?"

"I don't know," Ethan responded. "I think my powers overloaded the gem trying to keep me safe from the explosion. All I know is that when I woke up, all that was left of my Dino-Gem were fragments. So right now, you are the only surviving member of the Dino-Thunder team."

As the full weight of Ethan's announcement settled on Trent, he lowered his head. He wasn't a hero, he wasn't even supposed to have been a Power Ranger. He had come across the Dino-gem by accident. He hadn't even been able to beat Mesogog in practice, there was no way he could fight the mutant by himself.

Ethan seemed to realize where Trent's thoughts were going, and grabbed Trent by the shirtfront, and forced the young Hispanic to look at him. "Don't you dare give up on me Trent Mercer," he told him with urgency and conviction. "We've been beaten, but we aren't out yet. You're alive, I'm alive. We need to get back, find Hayley and plan how we're going to beat Mesogog."

Ethan's eyes bored into Trent's, and his anger and certainty managed to do what nothing else could have done, and broke through Trent's guilt. "Do you really think we can win?"

Ethan let him go, and gave him a tight smile. "We're Power Rangers, there's always possibilities."

* * *

Merrick was enjoying a late breakfast in the woods outside of Reefside, when something unusual happened. It hadn't been usual while he had been an active member of Wildforce, bur it was unusual now.

The wind which had been at his back all morning suddenly blew the hair out of his face, and he heard a wolf's howl in the wind. Dropping the small metal pan he was holding, he looked around urgently, and his eyes widened in shock as he recognized the large metal wolf that stood in-front of a nearby tree.

"Wolfzord?" he asked in disbelief, even as Zen-Aku got to his feet as well. "How can you be here?"

"Because the earth once again needs it's guardians," a light voice behind him said, and Merrick's heart skipped a beat as he turned round and saw her. Princess Shayla, the guardian of the Animarium, and the only woman that he had ever loved. Since his return from being possessed by the Wolf-mask of Zen-Aku, their relationship had been strained, and they had been separated when she had almost begged him to stay on earth.

"Princess," he said softly as she came towards him, a radiant smile on her face that masked the worry in her eyes.

"Merrick, my guardian," she responded. "I've come to give you these," she said as she held out three small glass spheres, each with an animal inside.

"Why?" he asked, confused. "I thought only a threat to the Earth could wake you. What's happened?"

"A great dark has risen in Reefside, and the sacred pool warned me that its guardians had fallen."

"Fallen?" Merrick asked urgently. "I was in Reefside not two days ago, with the Rangers there. How could they be gone?"

"I don't know Merrick, all I know is that I awoke, and the sacred pool only showed me that you and Taylor were close enough to help. Please Merrick, the world needs your help?"

He realized with a start that she had assumed his disbelief was going to be a rejection. It wasn't the first time there had been a misunderstanding between the two of them, but this time, he wasn't going to let it stand.

"Princess, I will always be here to help you," he told her in no uncertain terms, and she smiled at him in relief. "And afterwards, when the world is safe again, I'd like to return with you to the Animarium."

She looked stunned at that last comment, "Merrick," she began, and he could easily see that she meant to reject him again.

"Princess, Shayla, I have walked the world these last few years, and have lived among people, and done good. I have had friends, and allies and adventures, but something is missing. I swore my oath to you as your guardian, but do you remember the other oath I swore."

She blushed as she did remember it now. A lot of memories had taken their time coming back, and the memory of Merrick's candid and heartfelt promise to always be there for her, not just as the guardian of her body, but as the companion of her heart was one of them.

"You know what you'd be giving up?" she asked, almost hesitantly.

"I know," he assured her. "I swore an oath to you, that I would guard your heart as well as your body. I haven't forgotten it."

Whatever she was going to say in response was drowned out when the Wolfzord howled next to them, startling them both out of their reverie. The Zord was both loyal to and genuinely cared about both it's chosen master, and the Princess who had been chosen to guard the Animarium, but now was not the time for a discussion such as this.

Merrick nodded to the Wolfzord, and turned to Shayla. "I should get to Reefside," he said and he felt a familiar tingle as the crystals in his hand created the Lunar Caller on his wrist. He took a step back and slid the device off his wrist.

"Wild Access," he called, and felt a rush of adrenaline as he was once again clad in the silver armor of the Howling Wolf Wildforce Ranger. The Wolfzord growled, and then transformed into a bike, and Merrick quickly got on, and with a nod to Shayla and to Zen-Aku, he opened the throttle wide, and took off through the forest.

"Go, my friend. I will wait for you when the battle is over," Shayla whispered as he vanished through the trees and onto a nearby dirt-road. She turned looking for Zen-Aku, but the Wolf-Org had departed the impromptu campsite as well.

She wasn't entirely reconciled to the fact that Merrick was traveling with Zen-Aku, but even she could sense that a change had come over the former Duke Org. She didn't know what it meant, but once the battle was over, she would have to talk to them both about it.

She vanished from the forest, and kept her mind focused. There were others she had to go see.

* * *

"Captain Earheart?" A voice called out to Taylor as she walked into the hangar of El Toro AFB. It was far larger than the base in Turtle Cove and she had managed to get lost once on her way here. She tore her gaze away from the first of four fighters currently in the hangar, emblazoned with a Phoenix, and a sword and shield to look at the young man in Lieutenant's bars that was jogging toward her.

He came to a stop and saluted, and she responded. "Yes, I'm looking for Joshua Mcklintlock."

"That's me, most people call me Vampire, The general asked me to tell you, well he said good luck, I'm sure he meant good hunting," the two of them shared a brief smile at the comment, before Taylor schooled herself back into seriousness.

She shook the folder at Joshua, "Give me the brief on the weapons. Then I need to meet the rest of the squad, and then we launch." The orders came easily to her, and she realized that this was what she had missed most in her Ranger-days after Cole joined them. She might have been somewhat stiff and inflexible at times, but at heart, she was a leader of men.

"We'll be about five minutes, as we need to sort out a last minute fuel-line imbalance," he apologized, pointing at a couple of technicians who had part of the back fuel conduction system of one of the birds disassembled. "Techs say it might be twenty minutes before we can launch. Also, I have someone else here who wants to meet you. Grayson!"

Taylor looked round in surprise as Carter Grayson, the red Lightspeed Ranger came out of the office that had been co-opted as a tactical center. He looked tired and haggard, but his eyes were bright and attentive and he smiled as he saw her.

"Carter Grayson, Taylor Earheart," Joshua said by way of introduction, then saluted Taylor again." I'll leave you to it, ma'am."

Carter and Taylor shook hands as Joshua jogged over to the techs. "Hello Taylor, it's been a while."

"Haven't seen you since you drafted Cole for your mission to the moon. He went on and on about that for weeks," she responded. "What's our status?"

"Angela Fairweather rebuilt the Omega Zords, and we were using them as part of a Lunar Base project. We've brought them with us though, given what the general said I think we'll need them. We've also got Silver Guardians incoming, with Wes Collins and Eric Myers remaining in Silver hills to co-ordinate."

"Good, that gives us a functional Megazord, the Eaglezord, and plenty of ground troops," she nodded as the two of them walked into the small office. On the table were maps of downtown Reefside, as well as a small television set to local news and plenty of markers. The room was empty though.

"Where is everyone?" she asked.

"Your people are busy prepping planes and doing final pre-flight checks, mine are making sure the Zords are good to go. I'm not sure what else we can do, but we're as good as ready."

"There is one thing I can offer you," a voice interrupted from behind them, and Carter immediately spun and drew his blaster. However Taylor quickly pushed the barrel of the gun away from the woman it was pointed at, while glaring at Carter.

"Princess Shayla? What are you doing here?" she asked in surprise.

"Earth is in danger once again, and you and Merrick are the only two of my Wildforce Rangers close enough to help," she passed a small bundle to Taylor, and she looked at the jacket emblazoned with the Soaring Eagle logo, and the gold cell phone.

"I'm not sure how much my Growl-phone is going to help, but thank you Princess. Where's Merrick?"

"A few miles outside the city, he's making his way there now. Most of the Wildzords are still sleeping, but the Alligator, Wolf and hammerhead Zords, along with your Eagle zord are ready to fight," she explained. "Also, the Eagle zord is trying to wake the others and convince them to help as well.

"Thank you Princess," Taylor said with feeling. "Between the Wild-Zords, and Lightspeed's Omegazord, we should be able to stop this threat."

Shayla took Taylors hands in her own. "You were my first Wildforce Taylor, no one is more capable of doing this than you are. Fight well."

With that, Shayla vanished in a cascade of white light, and Carter re-holstered his weapon. "That was strange," he commented with a shrug.

"Princess Shayla is strange. I like her don't get me wrong, but she's always been a little odd. I think being asleep for three-thousand years wasn't healthy," Taylor mused before putting the jacket on over her flight suit, making sure it wasn't obstructing any essential equipment.

"All right," Carter said, obviously used to a certain amount of strangeness as a Power Ranger, and willing to accept a lot on face value. "The general said you were In field command of the mission. So we'll take your cue. What's the battle plan."

"Well, first we're going to take the new experimental ship. I've been reading the specs on the M-Buster missiles. We'll make an attack run, and then…"

As the base came to full readiness around them, Taylor and Carter began to plan.

* * *

Ethan had never properly appreciated how far out of the way Doctor Oliver had lived when they had access to Conner's car, their cycles, the Raptor Riders or other vehicles of some kind. However the determination to not let the others deaths be in vain had given both him and Trent the strength they had needed to alternatively run and power-walk their way through the Reefside forest to the house.

What they found, was devastation.

"Hayley," Ethan said in disbelief as they found the smoking remains of what had once been a nice one-storey bungalow. "Hayley was in there."

Trent didn't seem to be able to tear his eyes from the destruction. "Oh God. How could anyone have survived that?" he asked.

Ethan turned to him, face calm, but his eyes full of worry. "Trent, I found the others, I found you. I owe it to Hayley to find her."

And Trent, who considered Hayley to be the closest thing he had to real family swallowed once and nodded hard. "Absolutely," and headed towards the stairs to the basement.

There was a sizeable hole in the ground, but neither felt particularly willing to try and jump down it, and unfortunately their only other route was barred by debris from the house. The two of them worked together but even so weren't able to move one piece out of the way.

Ethan leaned back against a fragment of wall, breathing hard. It was too much. The fight, the desperate run to the house, and now this. He could feel every muscle in his body ache as he wiped some sweat from his brow.

"It's too heavy," he said rhetorically. "Has your gem calmed down yet?"

Trent looked at the white gemstone in the bracelet on his wrist, and noticed that it no longer seemed to be pulsing. "Looks like, want me to add a little power to this?" When Ethan nodded, he raised his wrist to his face, the bracelet becoming his Morpher. "White Ranger power."

In a flash he was standing in his White Ranger suit, and he felt some of the fatigue, some of the pain fade from his body a it was infused with energy from the morphing grid. He knew it wouldn't last, that it was a fake boost of energy like adrenaline, but it would do for now.

He took a hold of the debris, and despite the fact that Ethan must have been as tired as he felt, the Blue Ranger joined him, grabbing the piece of what had formerly been Doctor O's house, and nodded to him.

"Heave!"

* * *

Mesogog slammed a gigantic fist into the top of a skyscraper and watched in amusement as it virtually exploded under the impact. So far, the humans hadn't mustered much of a defense, but he knew that it would not last.

He was about to take another swipe at the building, when he suddenly received a most unexpected message. When he had left his base after finishing of the Rangers, he had used the Geno-Randomiser one last time to create a monster and started the monster scanning for an alternative energy source.

This particular monster had been capable of holding telepathic conversations, though it wasn't stupid or suicidal enough to actually try and read his thoughts.

"My Lord Mesogog," the sibilant voice spoke in his mind. "The white Dinogem still exists. It just appeared on the scanner."

Mesogog stopped his attack and concentrated on the information he was being sent. If the white Dinogem had survived, that meant he would still be able to use his Mezoiccannon to change the world.

"Where?" he demanded from the monster. Mesogog roared in anger when he learnt that it was at Tommy Oliver's address. Even in death, the man persisted to annoy him.

"Do you wish me to send some troops to retrieve it"

"No," Mesogog snarled, as he shrunk himself back to normal size. "I shall go myself." It was time to end the Rangers for good.

* * *

Trent and Ethan finally managed to move the rubble aside, and what they saw was heartrending. The pen that Doctor O had been keeping the Raptor riders in had been reinforced given their volatile natures, and so had fared better than the rest of the underground base, but it had still caved in when Mesogog had destroyed the lair.

However Conner's Rider had apparently taken it upon himself to protect Hayley, even to the last, and it was lying on the ground, it's own body forming a protective covering between Hayley and the debris that had come down from the ceiling.

"There! Hayley," Ethan said as they two of them made it into the pen. They managed to lever Hayley out from under the Raptor Rider, who weakly turned it's head and made a soft cackling noise. Ethan stroked the beasts jaw, and it growled once more, then put it's head back down. Ethan closed his eyes fighting back tears as the Raptor stopped breathing. He had lost too many friends today.

"Thanks boy. I'll miss you," he said, then turned to Trent. "How's Hayley?"

"She's out cold," he responded as he checked her for obvious injuries. "But I don't think she's badly hurt."

"Come on, let's go," Ethan said as he helped Trent lift the unconscious form of their friend up and managed to get her to the remains of the stairwell. They made it up top okay, and Ethan let go of Hayley for a second.

"Get her to the car, I just want to grab something before we go."

Trent nodded, then did a double-take. "Where are we going to go?" There was genuine despair in the white Ranger's voice, and Ethan reminded himself forcefully that for all intents and purposes, he was the leader of the Rangers now, even with his Dino-Gem shattered.

"I don't know, but I'm thinking out of Reefside. If Mesogog is attacking our homes, we can't go to my place, and he knows where you live," Ethan explained. He knew that they needed help, but he had no idea where to go for that help.

"Get Hayley to Doctor O's jeep, there should be a spare key in a small compartment under the floor-mat," he ordered as he went into the remains of the study. He knew that Doctor O had a large collection of weapons in a cabinet which he used to practice on the large lawn outside, and right now they could use all the weapons they could get.

Outside, Trent had put Hayley in the back of the jeep and pulled the hood over it to stop people from pulling over the jeep every fifteen yards to ask why there was an unconscious woman in the back. He was just about to look for the key under the floor-mat of the drivers seat when a chill went down his spine.

"Ranger….," a voice hissed, and Trents heart rate trebled. "I don't know how you cloaked your gemstone from my scanners, but it didn't last." He turned slowly, almost unwilling to confront his worst nightmare, but he couldn't deny reality. Mesogog, striding towards him from the forest looked like he was walking with a purpose.

"Oh shit," he muttered as he drew himself into a fighting stance. He knew realistically that he stood little to no chance of winning, but that wouldn't stop him from trying. Mesogog didn't seem to realize Ethan was around as well, probably thinking that because his gem was the only one to have survived so was he.

Trent wanted to keep it that way if he could. There was no point in giving up an advantage, even a small one. He desperately wished he knew how he had cloaked the Dino-gem before, because right now it was the only way he was going to be able to get away from Mesogog.

He didn't know a great deal about how the gemstones worked, but he knew that each one gave off a unique signature, and that apparently the weird pulsing that his gem had been doing when Ethan found him in the warehouse had meant it was keeping itself hidden.

"You will die today Ranger, and your gemstone will be mine," Mesogog intoned. The man-mutant took another step forward, and Trent was about to respond when something blue rushed Mesogog, and slammed what appeared to be a tai-chi sword into the side of his skull.

The blow wasn't overpowering, but what it did have was the apparent advantage of total surprise. Obviously Mesogog hadn't been expecting a second threat, and so had completely ignored his surroundings to totally focus on Trent.

More than that, Ethan had chosen his timing well, waiting until Mesogog was near the half-pit that now existed where Doctor O's porch had been, and the blow had been just enough to send him staggering to the edge of the hole. The edge promptly gave way under the dinosaur's weight, and Mesogog fell into the pit with a roar.

"Go," Ethan shouted, never taking his eyes off the spot where Mesogog had fallen.

"What?" Trent said in disbelief as he joined Ethan. "I'm not leaving you."

"Yes you are," Ethan responded flatly. "If Mesogog catches us, we're finished."

"Ethan," Trent began, but he was cut off when Ethan turned, the Blue Rangers eyes set into a fixed expression that was chilling.

"Listen to me Trent. You are the last of us with a functional Dinogem, and Hayley's always been the brains of the outfit. I'll buy you the time you need, now GO!" Ethan shouted as he heard Mesogog roar in anger.

"Not without you," Trent shouted back as he stood by his friend's side.

"Trent, if we fight Mesogog and lose, he will kill Hayley," Ethan said, and he didn't have to look at Trent to see how devastating that thought was to him. "She's our best chance to stop him, and I trust you with her life. Go, win this fight. Do me proud Trent."

For a few seconds Trent stood, desire to run warring with the need to stay and fight by his friends side in what could only be considered a suicidal battle. However Ethan was right, his Dinogem and Hayley's brains were all that was left of their team's mystical and scientific abilities.

"Give him hell," Trent managed to choke out, as he turned and ran for the jeep, hopping in and immediately putting in and turning the key. Thankfully the jeep started immediately, even as he saw Mesogog appear at the side of the pit.

He put his foot down on the gas, and the Jeep sprang forward and down the road away from the battle-field, and he spent all of his concentration on willing his powers to cloak the gem once again. After all, if that didn't happen, then Ethan's sacrifice would be in vain.

* * *

Ethan stood in the grass between the pit and the road Trent had disappeared down, sword held in hand, and a cool wind on his face. Despite what he knew was about to happen, he had never been so calm, so focused in his life. 

This was the battle he'd been preparing for since the day he became a Ranger. His moment, where no matter the outcome, he would fight to his last for the world he lived in, and the people he loved. Doctor O had once told him that everyone gets to make a choice at some point in their lives. To walk away, and take the easy path, or to step up and fight, and damn the consequences.

All that mattered was to stall Mesogog long enough for Trent and Hayley to get away, as Ethan stood up to the plate.

"A cheap blow Ranger," Mesogog snarled as he climbed out of the pit.

"I've got plenty of those," Ethan called back. Doctor O hadn't done much weapons training with them, but he had done enough for Ethan to know some basic stances, and he dropped into a defensive stance.

"You do not honestly think you can stop me do you?" Mesogog asked, a bored tone in his voice. At Ethan's silence he reached for the pouch containing the vials of green liquid he had created using Elsa's life-force. He seized one of the vials, and drunk it down, enjoying the effect it had on him as he felt himself become the epitome of dinosaur evolution.

"Very well Ranger," he said as he placed his now jet-black claws behind his back. "Take your best shot."

Ethan looked at him in disbelief, then shrugged. Obviously Mesogog didn't think much of him, and that suited Ethan just fine. He concentrated, and then leapt forward, calling on every last bit of strength in his body for one blow that would hopefully end Mesogog's evil for good.

As he ran towards the man-mutant, he felt his Dino-Gem respond. To his amazements, the few fragments left gave him their very last as well, and Ethan jumped into the sky as he neared Mesogog. With an inarticulate cry of rage, and boosted by the very last dregs of energy from his gemstone, Ethan slammed the blade of the Tai-Chi sword down in a blow designed to cleave Mesogog's head in two.

The sword, backed by everything Ethan James had to give, shattered on impact with Mesogog's head.

Ethan fell to the ground hard as fragments of metal rained down around him, a stunned expression on his face. "That's not possible," he whispered.

Mesogog lifted him with one arm until they could look eye to eye, and Ethan James shivered at what he saw in the mutant's eyes. "Do you understand now?" he asked. "Without your powers, you are less than nothing."

A strange calm came over Ethan, and he was reminded from a line from one of his favorite sci-fi shows about how fear accompanied the possibility of death, and calm shepherded it's certainty. He took a deep breath, and looked Mesogog in the eye. "I'm still Ethan James, Blue DinoThunder Ranger," he said defiantly.

"And now, you are not even that," Mesogog said, as he finished off Ethan with a single blow. Without his Ranger powers, and against the full might of Mesogog who had his own power-up, Ethan never stood a chance.

Mesogog dropped the lifeless body of Ethan James and demanded to know the location of the Dinogem from his mutant. The roar that he gave when told that the gem had once again vanished, could be heard clear across the forest.

* * *

Trent didn't look back as the car sped down the road, and towards the highway. He had heard Mesogog's roar of frustration as he managed to recloak the Dino-gem, but it gave him no satisfaction.

Ethan was gone, as was Conner and Doctor O, and Kira. He had lost everyone and everything he cared about save for Hayley, and for a moment, total despair settled on his shoulders like a heavy cloak.

He wallowed in the despair for a few seconds, before forcefully putting it aside, Ethan's last words ringing in his ears. He didn't know how or why he was the last survivor of the team, and he wasn't sure if he and Hayley could actually fix this, but as the black jeep sped along, he knew one thing for sure.

He was a Ranger, and he was not going to give up.

"Goodbye Ethan," he said to himself with conviction. "I'll do you proud."

Tbc…


	25. Chapter 25

**Name:** Ascendancy  
**Chapter 25:** Back to action  
**Disclaimer:** I own nothing, I am nothing. I am one with the gestalt. Sue him  
**Archives:** Sure, just let me know where  
**Summary:** Avalon strikes alongside Lightspeed rescue and Merrick and the Wildzords, while other Rangers across the world begin to mobilize.  
**Shoutout:** To Jeannine, for writing a fic that stirred in me the desire to write again myself. To Tennyson for helping me with the details on the X-31's

**Comments:** Okay, here's the situation. I've been going through some really messy times recently and to be honest, writing fiction really wasn't that important when compared to things such as bankruptcy. However I'm back, and I should be writing more regularly now. Once again, I'm sorry.

---

Nobody can do everything, but everyone can do something.  
- Author Unknown

---

Mesogog appeared once again in his giant size on the Reefside skyline, but this time he was not alone. He was through playing with the Rangers, with this town, and with humans in general. He had three of his monsters with him, all of them larger than the average high-rise building, and he wasn't looking to play this time.

"Destroy everything," he hissed at his minions. "Kill everyone. Level this city, raze it to the ground and show Trent Mercer that the price of defiance of Mesogog is the death of everything he holds dear."

---

Jason Scott was a man of action. Ever since he was a child and his mom had taken him to his very first Karate lesson he had a hard time sitting still, and an even harder time doing nothing when something needed doing. It was one of the things that had probably made him a good ranger, and a good martial artists. The constant drive to work, to train and to perfect his skills had left him with a huge well of patience, and of a bottomless serenity that his wife had been known to spend days trying to tease him into breaking.

Right now, he hung on to that hard-won patience as he brought his car to a screeching halt outside of his house. He'd been at work, doing an early shift when the radio-report had come in about fighting in downtown Reefside. None of the others had realized how impossible it was that there were no Rangers fighting whatever monster was destroying the town, unless the Rangers had been taken out of the equation.

Jason knew that better than most, because he was one of the few people that Tommy had kept in regular touch with. More than that, he knew Tommy as well as any other Ranger could and he knew that his old friend could no more have abandoned Reefside to Mesagog than he could have flown without a Falcon-zord. He grinned to himself despite the situation, and wondered if that was one of the reasons they'd always gotten along so well. They were both people who couldn't do nothing.

He dashed through the front door, and opened his mouth to call for his wife, when he skidded to a sudden stop. Emily was sitting on the staircase waiting for him. He pulled himself up short and was for a moment at a loss for words and she just gave him a wry smile.

"I wondered how long it'd be," she said softly, and unless he was very mistaken, slightly sadly. He'd never told Emily about being a Ranger, as he'd left that life a long time ago, and it just didn't seem fair to make a big deal out of a part of his life that they hadn't shared. He wasn't exactly keeping it a secret, though he'd hidden the morpher Lightspeed had given him carefully, but he made a point of not talking about it

"Emily, hon," he began, but she cut him off by simply stepping of her perch on the stairs, pulling him close and kissing him for a long moment. As she did, he felt a weight being pushed into his hand, and even with his attention focused on his wife's lips, he recognized the morpher he thought he'd hidden fairly well.

She stepped back and looked at him. "When I heard on the news that some monster was rampaging through Reefside, that the Rangers in Reefside had been destroyed, I knew you'd be back here as soon as you heard," she pursed her lips slightly. "I understand why you didn't tell me, but that doesn't mean I didn't figure it out."

"What did I do to deserve you?"

"You didn't deserve me," she responded with mock seriousness, "You earned me," the grin at the end of her sentence took the bite out of the sentence and she reached back and grabbed a small brown bag off the stairs next to where she'd been sitting and passed it to him. "Lunch, and a plane ticket to Reefside," she explained.

He took the bag and gave her a genuine smile of affection. "I love you, you know that right?"

"Don't worry," she responded. "When you get back, you can tell me all about it. Now go, save your friends."

He gave her a ribcrushing hug, and dashed back out the door, Morpher and bag in hand, and Emily watched him go with a sad smile on her face. She waved as the car tore out of the driveway and sighed once. "Just make sure you come back to me."

--

"All Knight-Wings check in," Taylor ordered as the four flights of two fighters climbed to the right height for a nape of the earth attack run. They only had four of the big m-buster missiles, and one was strapped to the belly-mounts of four seperate fighters. Each of the fighters was the second fighter on their wing, with the lead fighter being there to act as distraction and bait to allow the M-busters to get into range of their targets.

She had her growlphone in the front-pocket of her flightsuit, and despite knowing that it wouldn't make any difference given that she couldn't morph inside an aircraft, it was comforting to have it with her. It made her feel safe, made her feel that no matter what, she could handle anything.

The fighters were airforce modified X-31A fighters, designed specifically for project Avalon and modified under codename Phoenix to be the latest generation of anti-alien fighters. Their top speed wasn't all that much greater than other fighters, but it's maneuvrability was tremendous compared to regular planes. Of course, to stop pilots and gunners from passing out due to excessive G-forces, it was also fitted with Lightspeed designed intertial sumps to help.

What it meant was that the Phoenix's could make turns that would have made physicists who didn't know about the intertial sump technology weep if they'd seen them, and that was why their practice area had been classified and kept well away from the civilian world.

It also meant that you couldn't fly them without both tremendous computer support, and incredibly fast reflexes. The airforce had recruited almost exclusively from the Blue Angels stunt-flying team. Taylor had no doubt that had she might be able to get a slot on the team eventually, now that she had been given access to the project, but she didn't blame anyone for wanting her only along in the gunner's seat.

She was more than capable of targeting and firing the m-buster missile, and given that they had only four of them, they needed to make sure that they hit what they aimed for.

"Vampire to Eagle," the voice came over her helmet, and she recognised it as her pilot, and she grinned.

"What's on your mind Vampire," she responded, playing the old game of callsigns. She'd been Eagle for a long time now, and apparently someone had told the others.

"You're the only one of us to've ever fought these things. Can we do this?" Under other circumstances she might have been upset at the question, as generally soldiers who questioned whether they could succeed were a problem, but these weren't normal circumstances. Not normal at all.

"Don't worry about it Vampire," she said after a few moments. "With the Power Rangers, there's always possibilities."

--

The first beep went unnoticed by the occupants of the main crew cabin onboard the Mega-Ship mark 2. The ship, the first of a new breed of incredibly fast heavy cruisers built by the KO-35 orbital shipyards to Andros' specifications was a long way from it's home planet, and the computer needed a moment to consider what to do.

Deuce, the name of the AI, had received the priority communication almost 15 seconds ago, and it was listed with an emergency code that left no doubt in it's cybernetic mind that she needed to wake up her passengers. However they had only just fallen asleep, it being somewhat past midnight on the ship's clock, and obviously the first beep of an incoming signal hadn't aroused them.

So she tried again, this time with a louder double-beep. Unfortunately while it seemed to penetrate a little deeper into his organic crew's minds, it only caused them to move about a bit before they stilled into whatever dreams they were having. The conceptual child of DECA, the AI that ran the original Megaship spent two whole seconds considering what to do, an eternity for a computer as powerful as she was, before she came to a conclusion.

The message had a priority code that couldn't be ignored, and it's originator was one of her designers, and so she had no choice but to wake them up. She gave the situation an additional seconds thought to come up with the best way to do it, before deciding on a method that would even get through to these two.

Zhane sat bolt-upright in his bed when an atonal alarm sounded throughout the ship, and came through his room's speakers at triple the normal volume. He was halfway out of bed, his reactions honed by being only one of two people on board, before DECA mark 2, whom he called Deuce after an earth game that Cassie had introduced him to let him know what the problem was.

"Zhane, we have a priority Red-Alpha communication from Andros," the pleasant voice informed him. He immediately turned to the communications screen in his cabin, even as his life-partner got up.

"Andros, is he okay?" Karone asked, concern evident in her voice as she joined Zhane at the panel. Kerovians didn't marry in the same sense that humans from Earth did, rather they chose a life-partner in a somewhat elaborate ceremony involving various trials of compatibility. On the balance, Zhane thought with a grin, he and Karone had enjoyed the human ceremony their friends had organized more than his Kerovian one.

"Show me the message please?" he asked and obediently the image appeared of Andros.

"Zhane, Karone, I hope this message gets to you before you take Deuce out of this galaxy on your scouting mission, but we have an emergency on Earth and we need everyone with an active Ranger power. Tommy's team has been destroyed, and as of," he paused as he looked at a clock somewhere outside the camera's view. "Nine in the morning local time in California I think the entire team has been lost, along with one of their civilian allies."

Karone put a hand over her mouth in surprise, and Zhane's eyes narrowed as he considered the implications. He'd only met Tommy once, and even then only for a few minutes as part of the large group of Ranger wellwishers at his human wedding ceremony, and he hadn't been able to form an opinion of the man, but he did know that he was an experienced field-commander, which meant that if he'd been killed in action, then the threat was very grave.

That thought flicked through his mind in a moment, and he glanced at the video-pickup. "Deuce, set a course for Earth, full speed and send a message to Admiral Senow that we're scrubbing the scouting mission due to an emergency."

Deuce acknowledged even as the message continued. "As of now Ashley is busy contacting the others as per the Red emergency protocols we established after the Serpenterra mission. I hope you can make it back in time." Andros signed off and Zhane glanced at Karone who was already busy pulling on clothes.

--

For once, Trent didn't care about the law. Being Anton Mercer's son he had always known that he could probably bend more of them than most kids could. Money, power and privilege came with being the son of a wealthy industrialist, and Trent would have been superhuman to have been able to ignore it. However even though he had never ignored it, he had only rarely abused the privilege either.

As he put miles between himself and Hayley and the city of Reefside, he would have been willing to trade ruthlessly on his status as the son of Anton Mercer had it been necesarry. His entire world had narrowed down to two simple imperatives. Keep Hayley safe and keep running. It was the only way he could keep is own emotions under control, especially after Ethan had sacrificed himself to get the two of them away.

So focused was he on those two goal that he heard the slight moan from Hayley that suggested she was waking up even over the sound of the engine as he sped down the highway. He pulled over to the side of the highway with undue haste only vaguely remembering to put on his blinkers to indicate an emergency.

As soon as the car had come to a full stop, he had turned round and slipped a hand under Hayley's head, as her eyes fluttered open.

--

"Ich, Ni, San, Si," Rocky sounded off to his class as he led them through a Karate drill. He had found his calling in the teaching of young people not long after he had left the Power Rangers. His back injuries had forced him to stop competing, but he had enough experience to train others, and so he'd opened up a dojo.

It had taken him the better part of four years to get the dojo up and running the way he liked it, and he had some rough times over the years as attendance had periodically dropped. Then an opportunity had fallen in his lap. He had met TJ Johnson, the Red Turbo Ranger when the man had approached him about the mission to the moon.

He had to decline at the time, but he had recognised TJ as the defacto public voice of the Power Rangers on earth following Astronema's attack on earth, and had managed to convince TJ to publicly sponsor his dojo, and it had made all the difference. A school run by a nobody like Rocky hadn't attracted much attention, but a school run by someone that a Power Ranger vouched for was a different story.

TJ had periodically come by to see how the Dojo was doing and to lend his support to the endeavour, because he did truly believe in teaching young people the discipline and skills involved in a martial art, and over the years, he and Rocky had become good friends.

Rocky, for his part was just wrapping up a junior class, that he ran every saturday at midday. It didn't have quite the level of skill teaching that his adult classes did, but he did provide a place for parents to send their kids to learn about hard work, discipline and commitment. He completed the kata he was teaching the children, and bowed to them, dismissing them for the week. As the last of the kids filed out, he locked the doors and walked onto the main mat.

"So, you come here to check the books or to see if you've still got it?" he asked TJ with a grin, and the other man didn't waste much time in taking off his shoes and coming out onto the mat.

"You know Rocky," he said as he threw a punch which was easily blocked. "You're very confident for a guy whose butt I've kicked the last three times we've sparred."

Rocky grinned as the two of them began to spar in earnest. "Maybe," he admitted. "But unlike some people, I haven't spent my time doing press-junkets, I've been practicing." he punctuated the statement by delivering a spin-kick that knocked TJ off his feet.

TJ quickly performed a kip-up, coming back to his feet and stretching his neck. "Oh yeah, what's this I hear about one of your students taking you down a few weeks ago?" TJ was surprised to see the smile that blossomed on Rocky's face.

"Yeah, Jenny is great. She's an amazing student, and she picks up the martial arts very easy. I've been thinking of accelerating her training, because I think she's a prodigy."

TJ was about to respond when a very familiar beeping interrupted their sparring session. Two faces, lined with sweat turned towards TJ's wrist, and to Rocky's gym-bag, then back to each other.

"It couldn't be," TJ whispered as he tapped his wrist. "TJ here, go!"

"TJ, it's Ashley," came the concerned voice, and the Blue Space Ranger. "I need you to grab a plane to Reefside. We've got a disaster on our hands."

--

They were sixty seconds from Reefside's city limits, and they could already see their targets when Taylor first felt it. A warmth that started in her pocket where she had her Animal crystal, and that spread throughout her entire being. She tapped her mic and keyed it for the entire squadron.

"All Knight-Wings, this is Taylor. If you'll all glance upward, you'll see that we have reinforcements." He announcement was punctuated by an ear-splitting screeching that came from over a dozen different flying Zords of all shapes and sizes, headed by the magnificent Eagle Zord. Over her mic several cheers could be heared, and she smiled.

On the far side of Reefside, she could see the Predazord forming, confirming that Merrick had arrived and was bringing his Wildzords to bear as well. Taylor grinned fiercely as she keyed in the fire-control for the M-buster missiles.

Even as she did she felt more than heard the Eagle-Zord 's consciousness nest into her own. They had always had a very symbiotic relationship, and when she had been a Ranger she had been able to speak with the Eagle zord as plainly as she had been able to talk to a person across a room.

So it was no surprise to her, when the Eagle-zord screeched once, and the dozen or more flying zords split into four groups, each group of Zords taking point above one of the wings of the Phoenix-fighters. Taylor grinned as she saw what they were doing.

"We are here Taylor." the Eagle-zord told her. "And we will once again defend the world together."

Taylor nodded, and keyed her mic again. "All Knight-Wings, this is Captain Airheart, break and attack!"

--

Cassidy dove for cover as an explosion took out part of the building she and Devin were sheltering beneath, and luckily both she and Devin escaped harm. Helping her friend and camera-man back to his feet she took up her microphone again. They had remained in Reefside even as others had fled, and had been dodging bad guys and debris for hours now. Both of them were bone-tired and had no idea if their signal was still getting out, but neither was willing to leave just yet.

Cassidy wasn't a real reporter in the sense that she was attached to a proper news-station and getting paid for it. But in her heart, she was a real reporter, and this was undoubtably the story of a lifetime. The fact that her friends were the Power Rangers and that someone needed to carry their banner as they obviously weren't around at the moment was only part of the reason they'd stayed. She wiped some dust off her face and turned to the camera.

"This is Cassidy Cornell, still reporting from Reefside," she breathed out. "Despite the continuing devastation in the city, there is no sign of aid. The police have been routed, and there doesn't appear to be any-" She ducked again when half a dozen planes and what looked like Power Ranger Zords came overhead.

Cassidy couldn't stop herself from grinning into the camera. Even disheveled and bloody though she was, her smile was like a radiant beam of light. "Ladies and gentlemen, I told you that this city hadn't been abanonded." Devin took the hint and aimed the camera at the the arial battle taking place between the planes, the Zords and Mesogog and his gigantic goons.

"As you can see, those are Zords. Power Ranger's Zords fighting the bad guys along with what looks like the military. It shows that even in our darkest times, we can still trust on the Rangers."

It was unfortunate that while Cassidy had been speaking, Mesogog had batted one of the Phoenix's out of the sky, and sent it crashing to the ground right where she and Devin had been standing. Cassidy's Cornell, the last reported still in Reefside never got to finish her triumphant proclamation.

--

Taylor grunted in pain as Vampire through the plane into a turn that even the intertial sumps couldn't quite cope with and half a dozen G-forces slammed into her even as her wingmate was knocked from the sky. She couldn't believe how quickly the situation had gone downhill.

Even with surprise on her side, Mesogog had been able to pull one of his minions infront of the first of the M-busters, saving his own hide, but proving the concept as the missile had made short work of the monster. However no sooner had they destroyed one than two more had appeared, and what was worse, they had begun targeting the planes as well.

For all their speed and maneuverability they were still just made of metal and couldn't even begin to stand up to the punishment that was dished out by being swatted out of the skies by a gigantic monster. She'd already lost two of the planes, including one of the remaining M-busters, which meant she had lost half of her offensive abilities, and had nothing to show for it.

The Zords weren't fairing much better. Mesogog had engaged the Predazord while two of his monsters had double-teamed the Lightspeed Omegazord and were giving it a hard time. She hated to even consider breaking off, but her ultimate responsibility was to destroy Mesogog, and they obviously needed to reconsider their battleplan as they one they had wasn't working.

Feeling like she was betraying her allies, she keyed her mic. "All Knight-Wings. Break off and return to El-Toro."

Even as Vampire acknowledged and the plane began to bank away from Reefside, Taylor couldn't help but curse herself as a coward.

--

Even as the Wild and Lightspeed Rangers fought Mesogog and his minions, a call went out all over the planet. Everyone who had once been a Ranger was contacted, and asked to bring themselves, their reconsituted powers, and whatever help they could bring to Reefside.

From England, Kat abandoned the last show in her season to catch the first flight to America. From Malasia, Danny and Max abandoned their tour across the world to make their way to the nearest airport. In Australia Tanya gave up her holiday to make her way to the Sydney airport.

All across the world, Rangers stopped what they were doing and answered the call.

--

"Hayley?" Trent asked nervously as he grabbed a bottle of water and clambered into the back of the jeep and helped her into a sitting position. "Can you hear me, how many fingers am I holding up?" he asked as he held up three fingers.

Hayley blinked a few times, and said softly. "I'm not concussed Trent."

Trent gave her a wan smile. "You have no idea how glad I am to hear that," he said as he passed her the water bottle. "And I'd love to give you more time to rest, but given the fact that the skies over Reefside are covered in explosions and a bunch of Zords I've never seen before, I need you to help me figure out what to do next."

Hayley's eyes widened and she reached out a hand to Trent. "What happened, where are the others."

The question caught in Trent's throat and he could feel his eyes begin to burn even as he tried to answer. "I'm sorry Hayley."

With an audible grunt Hayley levered herself into a sitting position and pulled the young man into a hug. He didn't need to explain anything else right now, and it was quite obvious that whatever had happened it had affected him deeply. She had lost people over the course of her life, and knew that whatever trauma Trent was carrying needed taking care off before they could do anything else.

The moment Hayley's arms closed around him, Trent lost control over his emotions and began to cry. "I'm sorry Hayley, I couldn't save any of them. Ethan and I were the only ones that survived the explosion, and he stayed behind so that we could escape. We didn't have the time to come up with a plan, and now they're all gone."

Hayley said nothing for a moment, unsure of what to say. In the space of morning she'd lost one of her oldest friends, and several kids who were like family to her. Not to mention what appeared to be happening to Reefside as they sat there.

There had to be something they could do, if not to make things right than to make sure that the deaths of the Dino-Thunder team weren't in vain.

"No time," Hayley murmered, suddenly becoming very, very still as something Trent said triggered an idea in her mind. Trent immediately pulled away slightly and looked at her face through tear stained eyes.

"Hayley, you know something don't you. You've figured something out haven't you."

She managed a smile. "You might say that Trent. Get back in the front. We're going to Silver Hills."

Trent did as he was told while he thought about what she'd said. "Silver Hills, why does that sound familiar?" he asked.

"Because that's where we can find help. In fact, I think it's time for Time-Force."

TBC...


	26. Chapter 26

**Name:** Ascendancy  
**Chapter 26:** The Choices Of Trent  
**Disclaimer:** I own nothing, I am nothing. I am one with the gestalt. Sue him  
**Archives:** Sure, just let me know where  
**Summary:** As the battle turns against Avalon and the Wildzords, Hayley and Trent seek allies in Silver hills  
**Shoutout:** To Jeannine, for writing a fic that stirred in me the desire to write again myself.  
**Shoutout: ** JustJill, thanks, so do I :). GinaStar, sorry about that. Hope it continues to be worth it. TheRealVampire, Glad to see you're still with me. I'll try not to dissapoint.

* * *

No one remains quite what he was when he recognizes himself.  
-Thomas Mann

* * *

Wes Collins was not a happy man. The battle in Reefside had gone poorly, and he glanced at the wall of TV screens in his office. Each one was linked to a different long range camera pointed at Reefside. They were one of the main things that let him keep an eye on virtually everything happening in the city.

He could see a large plume of smoke on one of the camera's which he knew was the remains of the Omega Zord. Mesogog had turned out to be so much more powerfull than they'd been led to believe, and had not only shrugged off the OmegaZords attack, but had smashed it to rubble with a single blow.

Fortunately, the Lightspeed Rangers had managed to escape their destroyed Zord and were currently pinned down in the city with Tyranno-drones surrounding them on all sides. A detachment of Silver Guardians was heading their way to try and clear a path for them, but it was slow going.

On the other side of the city, the Predazord had been wiped out after a battle that was almost as short as the one against OmegaZord. The only difference being that with the advantage of having seen how powerful Mesogog was, it's pilot had been much more careful in the fight. It hadn't helped and they had no idea one way or the other what happened to the pilot of the Zord. He hoped Merrick had survived.

Wes sighed as he came out of his chair and approached the wall of screens. The Wildforce Zords led by the Eagle-Zord had managed to destroy all of Mesogog's allies, but had managed to make no serious dent in the big lizard himself. In fact, of the 18 Zords which had joined Taylor's attack, only 11 had returned to El-Toro, and almost all of them had been injured in the battle.

One piece of good news was that other Rangers were beginning to arrive in larger numbers, and Cam Watanabe had been a godsend in helping take care of the Wildforce Zords. It was quite a gathering of Rangers that were collecting outside of Reefside.

The other piece of good news was that shortly after the Wildforce Zords had withdrawn from battle so had Mesogog. He'd left his drones though, so the Silver Guardians were carefully starting to fight their way through the city, retaking it street by street. Civilians they found were evacuated, and slowly the city was coming back under their control.

They had no idea why Mesogog had left though, so they were keeping everyone on high alert and marshalling their forces so that if and when he returned, they'd be able to throw virtually everything they had at him in one attack.

There was a knock on the door, and he turned towards it as Eric walked in accompanied by two others. As they walked in Wes looked at them, and was immediately struck by how tired the young man look. Tired and grimy, and Wes's heart sank as he identified blood as well. The woman, Hayley Jennings according to her file, looked somewhat better, but she was very conspiciously staying away from Eric, and he seemed to be glaring at her with more than his usual dourness.

"Well," Wes said with a smile towards his visitors. "If you wanted our attention, then let me assure you that morphing in the front lobby got it."

Trent at least had the good sense to look embarrased at that, but nonetheless squared his shoulders. "We needed to see you, and with the mess in Reefside, we figured you wouldn't let us in without a good reason and we weren't sure we had the time to convince you the old-fashioned way. I know we're supposed to keep our identities a secret," he explained, but then his eyes turned hard. "But really, at this point who cares?"

Wes thought about that for a second and gestured towards the couch in his office. Trent sat down, and almost without noticing began to slump. Hayley cleared her throat and nodded to him.

"Joey," Wes called, and a neatly dressed Silver Guardian came into the office. "Can you take Mr. Mercer to one of the guest-rooms. Anything he needs, you get it for him."

The Guardian nodded, and with Hayley's encouragement, Trent left the office. Once the door had closed Hayley turned and smiled. "Thanks for that. By any standards he's had a a very rough day."

Wes nodded. "I've got a few questions if you don't mind?" Hayley shook her head, so he continued. "Why did you come here rather than heading for the rally station outside Reefside?"

"Didn't know about it," she responded as she sat down, eyeing Eric as she did so. "I was unconscious since just after the battle that killed most of the team. Mesogog attacked out base and I was knocked out. Trent watched every one of his close friends be killed, and had to let Ethan stay behind and sacrifice himself to buy our escape."

"Harsh," Eric said from the side, and Wes watched as Hayley's eyes snapped to him and she very visibly bit of a retort she was going to say. He didn't know what their history was, but it obviously wasn't pleasant.

"Yes, it was," Hayley said after a moment. "After I woke up we decided to come her to try and get Timeforce's help to make it right."

"Please tell me you don't want to try time-travel?" Wes asked with a somewhat pained look on his face. "Because I'm not sure we can help you there."

"Why not?" Hayley asked at the same time as Eric said "Yes we can."

The three of them were silent for a moment as Eric and Hayley glanced at each other and Wes raised his eyebrows at the both of them. He eventually decided to address his best friend first. "You want to explain that to me Eric?" Wes asked almost mildly. He was rewarded by a sarcastic snort.

"Not really," he responded evenly. Then he glanced at Hayley. "It's an old debt that needs repaying."

There was definite surprise on Wes's face at that response. He and Eric had been partners for years now and while he didn't know much of Eric's history prior to coming to Silver Hills he knew him well enough to know when he wasn't going to talk. It might annoy him, but he knew that he wouldn't get anything out of Eric while there was someone else in the room.

"I appreciate your vote of confidence Eric, but you know Timeforce isn't going to just let us arbitrarily change history." He held up his hands as Hayley opened her mouth. "Please, I don't mean to sound harsh, but Time-Force only really allows people to change the past when it was changed by someone from the future in the first place. We were allowed to meddle in history because Ransik came from the future, and the same is true for the Mute-Orgs." he gave her a sympathetic look. "Even though what's happened in Reefside was terrible, Tommy was my friend too, can you honestly tell me it happened through interference from the future."

Hayley's eyes dropped and a moment later so did her head. Her whispered 'No," was almost soft enough to go unheard.

"Then I'm not sure we can help," Wes said softly. "Even if we wanted to, Time-Force would be obliged to stop us."

No one said anything for a few moment and then Hayley got up of the couch and rubbed her eyes once. "So there's nothing you can do?"

Wes was about to answer when the side-door to the office opened, and someone stepped through.

"Maybe we can," Jenn Scotts said as she stepped into the office and Wes sighed. This day was just getting better and better.

* * *

Mesogog staggered in his lair as the power of his potion began to fade. The battle against the Zords had been a tiring one, and even with his additional power it had been hard-fought. He still had one vial of the liquid made by the life-force extractor left, but for now he needed to rest and recover.

He entered into one of the prison cells and closed the door behind him, ordering one of the Tyranno-Drones to seal it. While he was strong enough even without the potion to break down the door, Anton Mercer was not, and he could already feel his pathetic human side beginning to assert itself as the effects of the potion wore off. It didn't matter anyway, the Rangers were beaten and once he had regained his own form, he would complete the destruction of Reefside. Sooner or later he would flush Trent and the last Dinogem out and then the world would know his wrath.

Mesogog doubled over as the transformation came over him, and a moment later, Anton sank to his knees gasping for breath. He tried desperately to deny what he had done, but the memories of his time as Mesogog assualted him relentlessly and his stomach heaved as he recalled the deaths of people he'd regarded as friends. He threw up on the floor as he remembered the feeling of blood on his hands from the battle against the Blue Ranger.

"Oh God no," he whispered as the memories kept coming of the destruction he had wrought in Reefside, the other Zords he'd destroyed and people he'd killed. Anton Mercer had always thought of himself as a good person, a moral person, a visionary who was trying to make the world a better place, and now he had more blood on his hands than he could stand.

Anton Mercer crawled into a fetal ball and screamed in anguish for all that he had lost that day.

* * *

"You're Jenn Scotts," Hayley said with surprise. "But how can you be here. Time-Force wouldn't have let you stay."

"Normally no, but there were circumstances," she glanced at Wes and hesitated for a moment. "We came to an arrangement."

"What did you mean Jenn, maybe we can help?" Wes asked as the two women looked at each other. Part of the deal was that Jenn didn't exert any influence over the present by using knowledge from the future, and usually she took that to mean staying in the background of events.

"Simple enough really. Part of being trained as a Time-force officer is Ranger history. Not just the history of the individual Rangers and teams, but also of their human allies and friends. The ones that made significant contributions to our shared history as Rangers." she took a deep breath before continuing, and even though it had no basis in rational fact, Hayley could almost feel the momentousness of the event.

"Normally I wouldn't give you any future knowledge, but Hayley Jennings is one of the most famous Ranger allies in the history books. She along with Ethan James wrote the first generation AI software for an organisation called Space Patrol Delta. That software was the basis of programs still in use almost a thousand years later. In fact, our tech department still refers to the auto-generated programs as 'Hayleys'."

Hayley was stunned, and caught somewhere between flattered and openly disbelieving, but it didn't take her long to find her voice. "But that's not possible. Ethan is dead, and I've dabbled in AI architecture for our Dino-ops, but I've never completed it."

"Which means," Eric continued, his own thoughts obviously mirroring hers. "That for history to continue on the way Jenn remembers it, Ethan has to live." He looked up at Wes. "Which means someone stopped Mesogog from killing him, which means we probably already helped them change the past."

Wes sighed as he looked at the three people in his office. "Time-travel gives me a headache."

* * *

It took them the best part of an hour to hammer out a plan, and there were still grave problems to consider, not least of which was power. In the future, fusion generators the size of a washing machines powered the entire North-Eastern seaboard. Even so, Jenn had explained, Time-Force needed several generators the size of skyscrapers to be able to send large objects through stable temporal wormholes.

As Eric walked Hayley to the room they'd prepared for her, she was mulling over how to get the power, Wes' comment that they'd need either a major power-station or someone who could gain access to one to be able to even open a temporal wormhole big enough to send a person through. It was one thing to send a message to the future, but to send a person was infinitely more complicated and required much more power. Hayley had an idea on that, but not one she wanted to share just yet.

"You okay?" Eric asked as they arrived. "Because you've had a rough day to."

"Don't try and play nice with me Eric." Hayley said. "I'm grateful you stood up for me in there, but don't think that makes things right between us."

Eric sighed. "Be reasonable Hayley, it was seven years ago and it wasn't personal."

She looked him in the eyes, her own narrowing, and her voice was soft and full of hurt. "I know that Eric, why do you think it hurted so damn much. You used me. Worse, you played me. And you stole my research."

Eric couldn't meet her eyes and turned away. "It was a contract, and industrial espionage was good business back then. For what it's worth, I'm sorry for hurting you."

She smiled wanly at his turned back. "But that doesn't make it go away." She didn't know what else to say, so she entered the room and closed the door behind her, closing her eyes at the memories.

She put them aside and reached for her phone on the desk. She still had Eamon's card, and she knew that at least one of his recent commercial projects had to do with the power plant at Redondo in Los Angeles. And even if he couldn't help, he might know someone. It was something of a long-shot, but he was the only millionaire she knew, and he had said that she could call him if she ever needed anything.

She called and gave her name to the PA she got on the line, only to have her react immediately and put her through.

"Hayley?" Came the concerned voice over the line.

"Yeah Eamon, it's me."

"Oh thank God," he breathed with such an audible sigh of relief that it made her smile. "When I heard of what was happening in Reefside I tried to call you, and Tom and the cafe. Where are you? are you hurt? are the others all right? do you need help?"

"Slow down Eamon," she said with a sad smile. "I'm okay. I'm in Silver Hills with some friends who might be able to help fix this. Trent is with me, and he's a bit battered but okay."

She stopped for a second and she heard him draw in a breath as what she wasn't saying registered. "And Tom, and the others?" he finally asked.

"I'm sorry Eamon, they died protecting Reefside."

For a long moment he said nothing, and Hayley found herself oddly wishing that he was there in person. Even though they hadn't resolved their issues, right now she would have given her left arm for a real hug.

"What can I do to help?" he finally asked. "You wouldn't have called if things are this bad unless you thought I could help."

For a moment she considered calling him on his blatant ignoring of the fact that a mutual friend of many years was dead, but Hayley did remember that Eamon was capable of putting aside his own concerns when needed, and she was too tired to call him on it. Hayley sat down and began to explain what they needed.

* * *

Taylor didn't even bother turning her head as she heard the crunch of boots on the gravel approaching her. She was currently stroking the Soaring Eagle on one of the landing strips of El Toro AFB, as she had ever since it had returned. So many Zords had been destroyed by Mesogog, and unlike the OmegaZord the Wildforce Zords were alive in some sense, and their deaths had weighed heavily on her consciousness.

She hadn't slept yet, even though it had been almost eight hours since Mesogog had abandoned Reefside. The first attack had happened early in the morning, and now the sun was just starting to set in California. The Silver Guardians had re-secured almost half the city, and everyone was gearing up for the inevitable return of the bad guy. They hadn't been able to kill him last time, so they had no doubt he was coming back.

The Governor had declared martial law in Reefside, and put the local military forces directly under General Cathles command, at the request of the President who had been fully briefed on project Avalon. Normally Avalon was the bailiwick of the special appropriations committee, to give the President plausible deniability when needed, but in this case necessity trumped the need for secrecy. They had begun to roll in heavy artillery, tanks, APC's and thousands of troops. It was the largest desployment of military assets on American soil in the history of the country.

"That's quite a sight," Vampire said as he approached the Zord, a look of awe on his face. "I've never seen anything like it."

"I saw the Animarium from a plane when I was a kid," Taylor said. "It changed my life, and it changed again when I met the Eagle-Zord. We've been through quite a bit together."

Vampire smiled for a moment before turning serious. "I'm sorry to bother you Captain, but we've had an unconfirmed report of Mesogog appearing back in the city. Command wants us back up to alert status one, and to be prepared to launch the Phoenixes for a second run."

Taylor never took her eyes of her injured Zord. "Okay, I'll be there in a few minutes." For a moment he considered saying something more, but then decided that if a senior officer needed a pep-talk, she'd probably ask for one.

As he walked away Taylor looked up at her old friend. "We can do this.". Now if only she could convince herself of that.

* * *

Evening meal at the Silver Guardians compound found Trent sitting by himself at a corner table of the almost military style mess, wolfing down a huge portion of food. He hadn't been able to get much sleep in the 8 hours or so since they'd arrived, but it was enough and after the day he'd had he was hungry. Hayley had explained the plan to him, and that it would probably be up to him to make it happen, and he was due to be briefed in a few minutes according to the message that had been left for him.

He was so busy eating that he didn't notice Eric approaching until the older man sat down across from him. "Evening kid," Eric said with a grin. "You ready to change the world?"

That stopped Trent for a moment. "Nope," he said between mouthfuls. "Not ready at all, but I don't think Mesogog is going to give me a chance to get ready. Do you?"

Eric shook his head "Are you scared?" Eric asked after a moment. The mess room was right next to the briefing room where Wes, Hayley and Jen were busy putting the final touches to the plan to save the Dinothunder Rangers. Trent's eyes flew up to Eric's at the older Rangers strident question and he looked at him with something akin to shock on his face.

"Of course not," came the uncertain response, and Trent felt his cheeks heat up as Eric laughed at that. The Quantum Ranger looked at the younger man, his eyes seeming to look straight through him.

"It's okay to be scared," he finally said, and he could tell that Trent was surprised by the statement. "It's easy for the people doing the planning to figure out what needs doing, but unless they're actually the ones that are going out in the field, they can't understand what it's like to be holding the short end of the stick."

"Aren't you supposed to be the tough as nails guy?" Trent asked, slightly confused. The picture that Hayley had painted of Eric was that of a hide-bound, inflexible, rule-obsessed and arrogant man who was all bravado that was backed up by a measure of skill and more luck than most people deserved. It had seemed like a reasonably accurate assessment to Trent after he had first met the man in the lobby of the building.

"Mostly," Eric admitted with a lazy grin. "But I also understand that fear isn't always a bad thing, and I'm not convinced you realise that yet."

"What do you mean?" Trent asked suspiciously.

"Being a Ranger isn't just about fighting the bad guys," Eric explained. "It's about making a choice to put yourself between mankind and the monsters, and to accept that it's a terrifying thing to do, but choose to do it anyway."

"Isn't fear supposed to be bad?" Trent asked. "You know, it leads to the dark side and all that?"

"Cheap emotionalism," Eric said with a dismissive tone. "Fear is something everyone feels from time to time, when they make the big choices in their lives. Now for most people that fear comes from deciding to tell their boss to take a hike, or to ask their girl to marry them," he leaned over towards Trent, and Trent was startled to see the depth of conviction in the man's eyes.

"For us, for Rangers that fear comes from having to make a tough choice, one that could get us, and our teams killed, and making it anyway, because the alternative is unthinkable." Trent swallowed as Eric leaned back in his chair. "You're being asked to make a choice, and not just any choice but one of the biggest anyone can ever make. You have to decide if you can shoulder the responsibility of changing the world, of deciding that your idea of what should be, is better than what is. It doesn't get much bigger than that."

The two sat in silence for almost three minutes as Trent's head churned. He hadn't thought about what he was doing in those terms. For him, it had been about saving his friends, his teacher, Kira, and maybe having a real shot at taking down Mesogog for good.

Eric took a breath, "A very wise general once said, there is a fine line between being a hero, and being a memory. I'll support whatever choice you make, but only you can make sure you end up on the right side of that line. If you get it wrong, you'll be the one who has to pay the price."

"Thanks," Trent said after a few moments. "You've given me a lot to think about. Tell the others I'll join them in five minutes." With that, Trent got up and walked down the hallway to the room he had been given as a guest-room.

"That was awfully nice of you Eric," Hayley said, as she stepped out from hallway. She had heard Eric talking and had decided against interfering until she was sure what he was doing. "I'm a little surprised actually. For a few seconds there, you actually sounded like a real human being."

Eric looked up at her, he had known she was there, as she was behind Trent and he had been sitting across from the boy. When he had seen her approach the table, he expected her to say something, bu she had decided against interfering, and he had appreciated that, so he decided to throw her a bone.

"One of the first things they taught me when I wanted to become an officer in the Silver Guardians was that everyone on a team needs to be motivated. Some people need to just be yelled at, others need to feel like their input matters, or need to be cajoled into doing their jobs," he nodded down the hallway where Trent had disappeared into the planning room. "Some people need to feel like the weight they've got to carry around isn't unique, that someone understands them."

Hayley frowned as Eric nodded towards the empty seat, and she sat down, her arms still crossed. And very much ill at ease sitting and listening to him like that. "Go on," she said after a few moments.

"You can't help Trent with this," he said bluntly. "You aren't a Ranger, you don't wear the uniform." He raised his hands to forestall the angry rebuttal that was evident on her face. "That doesn't mean that you weren't important to your team, but there is a difference between being important to a team, and actually knowing what it feels like to see the world through the mask."

He waited another second to make sure she wasn't going to go off on him, then gave her a rare smile. "Trent didn't need your encouragement, he needed another Ranger to tell him that he wasn't alone, at least until he has to step up to the plate. And if that's what it takes to get him fighting fit," he shrugged as he got up. "Well, it's no skin off my nose. As long as he's willing and able to fight, and to stop Mesogog then that's all that matters. "

Hayley smiled slightly at him, then cocked her head. "By the way Eric, a fine line between being a hero and a memory?" she asked. "Which general was that again?"

Eric gave her an incredible shit-eating grin. "Optimus Prime. Who else?"

* * *

It ended up being almost ten minutes by the time Trent came to the briefing room and joined Hayley, Eric, Wes and Jenn around the center table which had papers and charts strewn around it. Wes and Jenn didn't know Trent well enough, but Hayley immediately noticed the difference in the way he was moving. A certain confidence that he had lacked before, and she glanced at Eric who had obviously noticed it himself, but was being careful to hide his smile.

"So," Trent said as he joined them. "Let's go save the world."

TBC...


	27. Chapter 27

**Name:** Ascendancy  
**Chapter 27:** Three Seconds To Change The World  
**Disclaimer:** I own nothing, I am nothing. I am one with the gestalt. Sue him  
**Archives:** Sure, just let me know where  
**Summary:** Trent sets off to change the past.  
**Shoutout 1:** To Jeannine, for writing a fic that stirred in me the desire to write again myself.  
**Shoutout 2: **Apologies for the short chapter, I'm having some trouble properly breaking the final couple of parts into a proper chapters. Next part should be up soon.  
**Shoutout 3: **_TheRealVampire_, no, not TimeForce, it wasn't their story after all. _JustJill_, thank you, I've always liked to play with the fact that the Rangers are an interconnected universe. _Ginastar_, glad you feel that way. _C2_, the ending has been sitting on my harddrive for over a year now. It's been tweaked, but I've long known where this story was going to end.

* * *

Action is the antidote to despair  
- Joan Baez

* * *

Trent was nervous. He was standing in what was a sub-basement not on any official map of the Silver Guardians building, looking at a device which currently had a red light above it. It had taken them several hours to hammer out the plan, and to find a way around the limitations. Unfortunately the technology that the Silver Guardians had access to, while cutting edge in it's own right, was primitive beyond belief compared to the technology of TimeForce.

While the technology to send a body through time was only nominally more complicated than the technology to send messages through time, which TimeForce had left with the Silver Guardians, it required vastly more power. Eamon, Hayley's friend of debatable moral virtue had come through for them though. Trent didn't know what Hayley had said to him, but he had managed to convince the local state government to give the Silver Guardians the access they needed to the power grid. Hayley's stunned expression had said everything he needed to know when it came to what it had cost the man.

And so he stood in the room, along with Hayley, Wes, Jenn, Eric, some techs and several Guardians waiting for the light to turn green. Even with the power being supplied, human power generation was so primitive compared to that of the future, that the window he'd have would be small, just under three seconds. It was a ludicrously small amount of time had anyone but himself, or maybe Conner survived to try this. Conner's superspeed would have allowed him to do something useful in three seconds, and Trents battle speed which was essentially a more specialised version of the superspeed power would allow him to achieve something.

"How long have we got?" he asked Hayley who was standing over the computer with one of the techs. She looked up and gave him a quick smile.

"About two minutes Trent. You probably should go ahead and morph. How much room do you need to get up to speed?"

"About three feet," Trent responded with a grin before touching his Morpher, and changing into the White Ranger. The moment he did so, a chill went down his spine, and under his mask, his eyes went wide. He stopped moving, and focused every sense he had on his Dino-gem. He wasn't quite sure how his link to his gem worked, but he knew that if he concentrated, he could affect the gem. That was how he'd managed to keep it hidden from Mesogog after he and Hayley had abandoned Reefside. Only as he reached out to his gem, he realised that morphing now, had been a mistake.

No matter how well he was able to use the Gem's innate cloaking ability, the burst of energy needed to morph would have been like a giant flare for Mesogog.

"He's coming," Trent whispered, then he turned to the others. "He's coming. Mesogog will have detected me morphing." The rising panic in his voice was obvious. To have come this far and made such a simple, elemental mistake was horrifying.

A hand came down on his shoulder, and he turned to find Eric standing by him. "Focus on the mission Trent. Mesogog won't be able to teleport into the basement, and if he has to fight his way down, it'll take a lot longer than two minutes."

Trent took a deep breath and nodded. That's when he felt the a slight vibration in the floor, and saw Eric and Wes' gazes lock. Even with how little he knew about how this building was constructed, a hardened sub-basement bunker like this was an immensely solid piece of construction. For something to have made it shudder, even slightly, implied things Trent didn't want to think about.

"Get the guns," Eric ordered. He and Wes immediately morphed themselves, and went to a secured cabinet where they each took a large and nasty looking rifle, as did Jenn and the other Silver Guardians in the room.

Wes fixed the technician with a stare that could have incinerated him on the spot. "You're only job Denny, is to get that portal working. When we go out that door, you seal it shut behind us, and you get that time-portal up and running. Do you understand me?"

Denny nodded feverishly and continued working on the computer as Wes turned to Hayley. He gave her a smile she couldn't see under the helmet even as Eric and Jenn headed out the door with the other Guardians.

"Hayley, we'll keep him as far away as we can. If you need it, there's more rifles in the cabinet." He quickly left, and Jenn came up to him.

"Good luck Trent, world's in your hands now. Take care of her."

With that she was out the door, and Trent could do nothing but watch as the steel door slammed shut behind him.

* * *

As Wes watched Jenn joined him in the hallway outside, he saw Eric was organising the Guardians with his customary efficiency into a firebreak by the corridor that led to the stairs, even as another tremor, this one louder and nearer rumbled through the base. Even inside his helmet he could hear the screams and sporadic gunfire coming from the floor above.

He gave Jenn a squeeze on the shoulder. Normally he wouldn't have asked her about the future, as it was part of their unspoken agreement with TimeForce that Jenn would not influence the time-line in any way, but in this special case, and seeing the look on her face when they had been discussing saving the Dino-Thunder team, he had asked anyway.

"Did you tell him?"

Jenn snorted elegantly. "Of course not. What he's about to do is going to be hard enough already, knowing what's going to happen would make him hesitate." She gave him an inscrutable look. "History has to run it's course. You know that. It's not as if he's going to remember it when he succeeds."

He was about to say something when a piece of doorway came flying down the intersection, followed a moment later by the body of a Silver Guardian.

"Positions, fire as soon as you have a target." Eric ordered as he shouldered his rifle and aimed it at the intersection. The three of them exchanged a quick glance, and each of them knew that their survival wasn't the issue, only delaying Mesogog mattered.

Wes gave Jenn a sad smile under his helmet. "You know I love you right?"

She looked up at him and smiled. "Yeah, I know."

Then Mesogog appeared in the intersection, and the battle was joined.

* * *

Inside the sealed room Trent was pacing, even as Hayley and the tech worked on the controls for the time portal.

"How long?" Trent asked, unable to help himself, even as his eyes stayed on the red light that would turn green when he was clear to go.

"40 seconds," Hayley responded without looking up. It was remarkable to Trent that she could concentrate when he could hear guns firing and screams and explosions from the other side of the steel door that seperated this room from where Mesogog was fighting the Guardians and the three TimeForce members. However other than a single glance when the gunfire had started, Hayley had kept her eyes on the screen, and now for the first time she lifted them to look at Denny.

"I want you to hide behind the desk and keep working," she told him, and he nodded. Obviously scared but unwilling to stop doing his job given the enormity of what they were doing. Hayley left the station as he bunkered down behind it, still typing on the keyboard while angling his head to see the monitor. Hayley meanwhile strode over to the weapons locked and retrieved a rifle and loaded it.

"Trent," she said after she'd done so. "I need you to listen to me. Whatever happens here, you're only job is to watch that light. I want you to turn your back on this room, so you are pointed straight at that portal, and the moment the light goes green you go."

She swallowed once. "No matter what you hear, no matter what happens, if you don't get through that portal, all of this was in vain. Don't look back."

Both their heads snapped round as the gunfire suddenly went silent and something smashed into the door, putting a large dent into it.

"Trent!" Hayley snapped, and Trent immediately turned back to the light. "I mean it Trent, don't look back."

"What about you?" he demanded, even as he kept his eyes on the light. Something slammed into the door again, and Trent, through a sheer act of will kept his eyes on the light

"Doesn't matter Trent, if you succeed then none of this will have happened. And you and I both know that you can do this."

There was a terrible sound of metal tearing behind Trent, and then gunfire and a roar of anger and fury, but Trent kept his eyes on the light. A single tear tracked down his face as he heard the sound of something hitting something else, followed by a crash on the other side of the room.

"Trent," a voice growled behind him. "You've led me on quite the chase, but it's over now boy." Mesogog snarled and Trent answered him as he saw the change.

"You're right, it is." As the light turned green and the blue portal appeared infront of him, Trent dashed forward, never looking back.

* * *

Earlier that day.

"Give it up Mesogog," Doctor O ordered as he came to his feet as well. "There's five of us and one of you, and we will never stop until we've beaten you."

"I suspect that's true," Mesogog allowed. "Then let's end this." He reached into a pocket on his belt and drew out a small disk, maybe six inches across and two deep, and threw it nonchalantly at Conner.

Even as Conner reflexively reached out to catch it, a blur slashed passed him, seizing the item and curving back past Ethan and disappearing into a blue vortex, which vanished a moment later. Connor looked at where the portal had been, as did the other Rangers and Mesogog.

That had looked like Trent, but Trent was only just climbing back into the building from where he'd been knocked outside, so it couldn't have been him. Whatever it was, Mesogog appeared to be completely stunned.

"Well, that was different," Conner said, confusion evident in his voice. The fight so far hadn't exactly been going their way, but whatever Mesogog had planned for his coup de grace, had obviously failed.

"How?" Mesogog roared. "How could you have possibly done that."

"Don't know Mesogog," Tommy said as he came shoulder to shoulder with Connor as the Rangers lined up. "But I guess it's a fight again. Rangers, let's kick some ass."

* * *

Reappearing from the portal in front of Mesogog, Trent threw the bomb at the mutant. Mesogog's eyes went from triumphant to disbelieving as he recognised the bomb, and then it was too late.

Trent had maybe a moment to asses the situation, and saw Hayley's body lying up against a wall, while Denny was still hiding behind a desk. Trent wished he could thank the man for having stayed at his post, and having helped saved the world, but there wasn't time.

Even though he only had a second at best, he could already feel something changing. It wasn't something felt, it was something experienced. A fundamental change in reality that was taking place even as the bomb sailed through the air towards the mutant, and Trent knew that the world had changed.

For all, the death, all the friends lost, the allies who had sacrificed themselves and who had died to get him to this point, they had succeeded.

Mesogog, Denny the tech, and Trent died as the bomb when off and destroyed everything in the room, and under his helmet, Trent was wearing a big smile, even as the world changed around him.

TBC...


	28. Chapter 28

**Name:** Ascendancy  
**Chapter 28:** The Ascendancy of Connefr McKnight  
**Disclaimer:** I own nothing, I am nothing. I am one with the gestalt. Sue him  
**Archives: **Sure, just let me know where  
**Summary:** The world has changed, and the Rangers take the battle to Mesogog.  
**Shoutout 1**: To Jeannine, for writing a fic that stirred in me the desire to write again myself.

Notes: I know it's been a long time between updates, and if anyone is still reading this, thank you. I will have the epilogue up by the end of this week, because leaving people with another multi-month break seemed horribly unfair given how long ago I started this story. I hope you all enjoy.

* * *

There's a whole world you haven't even tapped into yet, beyond Triassic power and Super Dino mode, but you got to believe you deserve it. And when you do, you'll be blown away by what you can do.

- Tommy Oliver

* * *

Five Rangers stood opposite Mesogog in a warehouse on the edge of Reefside. For almost a year, Mesogog's forces had clashed with the Rangers on a regular basis, with the heroes scraping out victory after victory. The evil dino-mutant had thrown everything he had at them, with no success to show for it and plenty of losses, and all those battles had brought both sides to this point. In a future that would no longer come to pass, Mesogog had won the battle, killing the Rangers, and devastating Reefside, only to find himself fighting even more Rangers supported by the US military and a special project designed specifically to aid the Rangers in their darkest hour. Trent and Hayley, the only survivors of the Reefside team had made their way to the home of the Time-Force Rangers, and had changed history to make sure Mesogog failed.

Mesogog was keenly attuned to the inviso-portal network throughout the city, and even though he had no idea how the hated Rangers had managed to snatch his bomb, and his easy victory away, he did know that whatever the blue vortex had been, it had disrupted the portal network and trapped him in the city until it stabilised. It was the hardest thing he had ever done to retain control, and not let his anger turn him into a wild berserker at the complete failure of his plan to eliminate the Rangers with his bomb. However Mesogog was no weakling, either in body or in spirit, and he held himself under control as he faced the five Rangers, all in their Super-Dino forms. After all, he had one last trump-card to play.

"Very well Rangers," he said as he drew one of the vials of his enhancer drug, and downed it in a single move. "You have me outnumbered, but your current form is no match for my own super mode. And unlike you children and your pretenses at dinosaurs, their blood runs through my veins." Mesogog laughed as he felt the mystical elixir take effect. His countenance changed, his claws changed into the purest obsidian black, and with an inarticulate roar, Mesogog charged the Rangers.

Connefr was bone-tired from the last few days of activity and bad nights, but his mind seemed to be operating on all cylinders as Mesogog leapt towards them, and Conner met him blow for blow. In his Super-Dino mode he was incredibly fast, stronger than almost any Ranger had ever been, and he noticed with satisfaction that the others hadn't hesitated in joining him as he traded punches and kicks with Mesogog. It soon became apparent however, that whatever it was that Mesogog had drunk, it was making him much more powerful as he intercepted blows that should have staggered him, and returned them with even more speed and strength. Conner took a palm-strike to the chest that was powerful enough to have caved in concrete, and only his suit had saved him as he hit the ground with enough force to knock the wind right out of him.

He struggled to his feet only to see that the other Rangers weren't faring any better. Mesogog grabbed Doctor O's arm as he swung high, and then slammed his elbow into the black Ranger, causing Tommy to stagger backwards with a cry of pain. Kira took advantage of the moment to slam into Mesogog with all her strength, only to bounce of what appeared to be an almost impenetrable hide, and she paid for her attack when Mesogog seized her arm, and yanked hard and flung her across the room. Trent tried using his feather-sword but only succeeded in damaging the monster's armour. Conner wasn't a great thinker, but he did have a gift for battlefield tactics, and what they were doing now just wasn't working. They needed something stronger, and he straightened up as he called the Shield of Triumph.

"Guys, fall back," he shouted as he used the shield, and donated energy from his friends to turn into the Triassic Ranger. He had spent enough time with Doctor O's database to know that even though many of the Rangers had gained power-ups over the years, the Triassic powers were amongst the most powerful in the history of the Rangers. It was their ultimate trump card. "Mesogog!" Conner shouted as he leapt forward, even faster than before. 'You're mine."

Ethan helped Kira stagger backwards, the latter holding what was obviously an injured arm as Conner slammed into Mesogog, carrying them both across to the far side of the warehouse. The two warriors exchanged blows that would have broken anyone with less strength, and hit each other with enough force to make the windows rattle.

"He's doing it," Trent said as he tried to regain control of his breathing. "He's going to beat Mesogog."

Tommy shook his head, his eyes intent on the battle raging. "No, he's only just barely keeping up. Mesogog is still faster."

Conner meanwhile had come to the same conclusion, and instead tried to leverage his strength as he grabbed Mesogog's hands and tried to push the Dino-mutant back. The two of them dug in their heels and began to push, and for the first time Conner became aware of the sweat running down his face at the incredible effort he was expending. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to be having any effect. Mesogog was matching him, grunt for grunt, push for push.

"Weak," Mesogog snarled into his face. "Is this the limit of your power?" he asked, then growled and took a step forward. Conner struggled to keep himself steady, but it was no use as Mesogog pushed him back one step, then another. He tried to force himself to hold on, but it was no good, as Mesogog was still too strong. The Triassic Ranger staggered as Mesogog twisted free and slammed a fist into his chest, and then went flying backwards as Mesogog smashed into him with all his might.

He was dimly aware of sailing through the room before he crashed to the ground, his morph disappearing around him as he gasped for breath and tried to work through the immense pain of that blow. He was vaguely aware of the other Rangers attacking Mesogog again, but they stood even less chance than he had. As he took in deep lungful's of air, Conner McKnight began to consider for the first time that he might lose.

And in that moment, Conner despaired. He was the Red Ranger, and he couldn't do anything to save his friends. He had thrown his most powerful attacks, his most powerful form at Mesogog and been soundly thrashed. He didn't know what, but he knew there was something he had to be able to do to change things. Never in his entire life, had he been so sure that there was something he could to do turn the tide.

And that was when the world faded into a pure, pristine white.

* * *

"Call," the voice told him. Conner looked around, and was surprised to realise that he wasn't in any pain while he was here. The voice of the morphing grid that he had heard in his dreams several times seemed more urgent than ever, but he still didn't understand.

"Call what?" he shouted, his voice disappearing into the pristine, white world the same way a snowflake might disappear under sunlight. "I don't understand what you mean."

"You need strength," the voice reverberated in his head. "Call on others for strength."

When it became obvious that Conner still wasn't understanding, an image appeared of the Triassic Ranger, with the other four rangers beside him. light seemed to flow from them into the Shield of Triumph, and from there into the Red Ranger.

"We've already tried that. I'm not strong enough even as the Triassic Ranger."

"Watch," the voice demanded. "You call on friends for strength. They are the same as you. Call on all of them." The image changed, and suddenly the whole white place vanished as a kaleidoscope of people appeared before Conner. Some wore red, or blue or yellow, others were clad in silver or orange, or even stranger colours and combinations, but Conner immediately recognised all of them. They were all Power Rangers.

And Conner McKnight looked on in disbelief as he finally understood what the voice had meant. He knew what he had to do, and what it would cost him.

--

Kimberly Hart was in the middle of an exercise routine in her gym in Florida when she felt it. Having done well at the pan-globals all those years ago, she had gone into teaching her skills to other people, and her gym was one of the best in Florida. It certainly didn't hurt that after sponsoring Rocky's dojo, TJ had offered to do the same for other Rangers as well. The combined prestige had easily meant she had full classes every day, but today something was different. Something deep inside her recognised the call of the morphing grid, even though she hadn't been a Ranger in over a decade. Something was calling to her, someone needed what strength she had to offer.

--

Andros yawned as he sat in front of the computer in his home in Angel Grove, the same home he shared with Ashley. They didn't have anything planned for the day, but Andros was by nature an early riser, and he always did a check of the computers first thing. He was about to get up and make some breakfast when he stopped. There was trouble, even though he didn't know how he knew that. Something was wrong, and someone was calling out to him to help. He closed his eyes and concentrated, and could feel the surprise from their bedroom as Ashley felt the same call.

--

At Berkeley, Justin was just waking up to take advantage of his free Saturday when he stopped. That same feeling he had all those years ago that lead to him becoming the Blue Turbo Ranger reached out to him now, and he knew he couldn't be anyone he wanted to know if he didn't respond to the call. Ignoring the odd look his room-mate gave him, he walked to the window, and stared out into the sky as he dug deep within and answered.

--

Almost three thousand years in the past, having just laid one of their own to rest in an eternal tomb to save the world from Zen-Aku's evil, the very first Wild Force Power Rangers stopped what they were doing, and looked towards the sky. Even though their names would not be recorded in the eventual history of the Rangers, they too had touched the Morphing grid, and heard the wordless call for help that went out across time and space.

--

Elizabeth Delgado, known to one and all as Z snorted with laughter at the joke Jack had been telling her about the time he had caught Sky preening in a mirror. The two of them were and always would be best friends, even though Jack had resigned as a Power Ranger after Gruum's defeat. Her laughter cut off as suddenly as his did as they both felt a strange sensation. Someone needed their help, and even though they weren't sure how and what they could do to help, both were Rangers and good people besides.

--

In the distant future, Lucas, the Blue Time Force Ranger was busy celebrating his latest win on the racing circuit with Trip and Katie when they all felt the summons. Power was needed, and they had been called upon to serve. Nodding to the others, and with no need for verbal communication the three of them resolved to give what they could, for they were Rangers.

--

Across all of time and space, a call went out. To those who were Rangers, and to those who had been Rangers. To humans who had touched the grid, and to those who wouldn't see their own powers for years to come. From the school where two young children who would one day become Jungle Fury Ranger were just beginning their training, to the distant past when Zordon first created them to stave of Rita Repulsa. From the humans on earth who had touched the Power and seen the wonders and terrors contained in it, to the farthest depths of space where the Shadow Ranger dwelt. It touched the hearts of those who had always been pure such as Jason Scott, and to those who had known evil but found salvation like the former Princess of Evil Karone. From the very dawn of the Power Rangers, to the very end of their line in an unimaginably distant future, the call went out.

The cry for help, from one of their own who was facing an enemy he couldn't beat. Who came to them in a wordless request for power, to give him the strength needed to defend his world, and those he loved like family from a darkness that would swallow them whole. The cry was heard by everyone who had ever touched the Morphing Grid, and they all looked deep within before they sent their answer.

The answer was a unanimous 'Yes'

* * *

Tommy Oliver felt his own Morph shatter like glass as Mesogog landed a roundhouse kick against his jaw and he hit the ground hard. He was about to try and get up, when the world around him faded into a pristine white wilderness. His aches and pains vanished, and he looked around in astonishment as Conner appeared before him and offered him a hand to get up.

"Mesogog?" was the first thing Tommy asked, and Conner just shrugged.

"Not an issue for the moment. We've got time."

"Where is this?"

"This is my mind," he responded with a shrug, and Tommy's eyes narrowed as he really looked at his young friend. There had always been an easy confidence to Conner McKnight, but as he looked at his protégé now, Tommy realised that Conner had found something more.

Unsure what to do about this new development he gave the young man a smile. "It's quieter in here than I thought it would be." He was rewarded with a short bark of laughter and a grin that seemed to split Conner's face in half.

"Yeah, well that's what happens when you come to terms with who and what you are."

The smile slipped off Tommy's face as he heard the tone in Conner's voice. "Conner, what's going on."

"I've found a way to stop Mesogog," he explained, but the dark look in his eyes was enough to dissuade Tommy from celebrating yet. "I've found a way to tap into the full powers of the gemstone."

Tommy paled at that, remembering what Hayley had told him about the amount of power that involved, and the danger of trying to channel it. Conner looked up sharply as he thought it, and Tommy realised that inside this pocket dimension, Conner could probably tell what he was thinking.

"No," Tommy said forcefully. "We'll find another way to beat him."

"Sorry Doctor O. This is the time, and this is the place. Mesogog has to go down now, before more people get hurt or killed."

Suddenly Tommy understood what he had seen in Conner's eyes when he first appeared in this strange place. It had been an almost bottomless well of serenity and strength that came from having made a hard decision, but knowing that the decision was the right one. But Tommy couldn't give up without trying. "What about you?"

Conner shrugged again. "You told me that being a Ranger means sometimes making the hard choice."

Tommy shook his head. "I don't accept that." He couldn't accept that, because it meant that Conner was willing to die to save the world, and Tommy wasn't willing to let a Ranger die needlessly. He felt rather than heard the gratitude Conner felt realising what his mentor was feeling, but it was also tinged with sadness and determination.

"You don't have a choice. It's already done. While we've been in here, only a moment or so has passed in the real world, but the energy is already building, and it can't be stopped."

Tommy stepped forward and grabbed Conner by the shoulders. "Dammit Conner, you can't do this." He could feel his own composure cracking. Tommy had always considered and accepted that he might fall in battle, but it was something different when it came to one of his friends falling in battle, especially when there was nothing he could do to affect the outcome. With the Power Rangers, there were always possibilities. It was one of his favorite sayings, and one that he believed in wholeheartedly, but right there and then he couldn't see any other possibilities.

"It's okay Doctor O. It's a sacrifice I'm willing to make." The white nothing that surrounded them flickered, and for a brief moment, Tommy saw the warehouse again before the whiteness reasserted itself. "Please listen, I don't have much time. I can't keep this mental construct intact forever. I need you to do something for me." Conner had never begged for anything in his life, but it was imperative that Doctor O not only understand, but accept that this was his choice, his decisions.

It was an unfair fight really. Inside Conner's mind where Tommy could not only hear his thoughts, but feel his sincerity, his love and caring, his acceptance of what he had to do, there was nothing for Tommy to do but accept it. "Anything," he said after a long moment.

"I need you to tell the others goodbye for me, and that I love them, and will miss them."

Silence reigned for a long moment, before Tommy nodded. "Conner," he began to say, but was taken by surprise when the young man stepped towards him, and wrapped his arms around him in a solid hug.

"Thank you, for everything Doctor O. I'm the Ranger I am, because of you."

It took no effort whatsoever for Tommy's arms to come up and grip Conner so hard that it should have hurt. "I'm proud to have fought by your side, and to have been your friend."

* * *

The white place faded, and Tommy gasped as all the pain he had been feeling rushed back to him. He ignored it all, and looked towards Conner who was beginning to glow.

Everyone in the room could feel the change in the air as power flowed into the Shield of Triumph that leapt from the ground where it had fallen to hang in front of Conner. The young man, disheveled from his battle, stood with clear eyes as the shield slammed into him, and a light so bright it was painful filled the room. As it faded, Tommy heard a gasp as they beheld what the power had done.

The suit Conner now wore was obviously a Ranger suit, it had the same distinctive lines and design that they all shared, but it was the purest white, with only slight amounts of gold trim. The only substantial colour was on his left arm, where a band of every Ranger colour that had ever been covered his arm almost from shoulder to wrist. On his chest was an imprint of the Shield of Triumph, with dozens of other symbols overlaid inside it. Some Tommy recognised as those of previous teams, some he could only assume were teams that might some day be, but the message was obvious.

Here stands one Ranger, who speaks for all of them. One Ranger to draw a line against the darkness, knowing that he has the support of every other Ranger.

Mesogog finally found his voice. "Who are you?" he demanded, shaken by the sudden change.

"I'm the beginning, the middle and the end. I am all Rangers, who stand against the darkness. I'm the Alpha Ranger, and you're finished."

* * *

Conner stood, a blazing white nimbus surrounding him as Mesogog roared and charged at him. Conner let him come, confident in what he was feeling. The power was incredible, intoxicating and very dangerous. Even as he stood there he could feel that the sheer power coursing through him was burning him up from the inside. He didn't have much time, and he had a job to do.

__

There's a light in the distance, see them coming closer

Mesogog charged forward and swung at Conner, but almost before he begun the swing, Conner had already ducked and rolled behind him, and he slammed both fists into Mesogog's back, causing a huge gout of sparks to erupt from his back as his fists did what even the Shield of Triumph hadn't been able to and injure the Dino-Mutant despite his enhancements.

__

With the force of ages, of centuries gone by

Mesogog spun around, and seized Conner's hands in his own, attempting to push the youngster back as he had done before. "You can't beat me. I am Mesogog, I am the future of this world."

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Protectors of the right, defenders sworn to fight

Conner laughed at Mesogog as he held is ground with ease. Mesogog's mind hadn't been able to process what had happened, how badly the equation had changed. He was supremely powerful, and didn't even understand just how utterly outclassed he really was.

__

Dino Rangers Roar! Power Rangers Score! Save us from these evil forces

"The future?" Conner said, a snarl creeping into his voice. "No, you're history." His voice rose to a shout as he said it, and the blazing aura that surrounded him became brighter still. He knew his time was up, the energy he was channeling was too powerful and it was consuming his body with white fire. Still, there was time to finish what he had started, and end this battle. Mesogog screamed in anger, then in pain as the light became brighter still, until even the other Rangers had to look away.

__

Victory is ours forever more!

The light faded away, and Kira Ford looked intently towards where Conner and Mesogog had stood for their final confrontation. Her eyes went wide as the saw nothing there, and she ran forward, fear in her eyes as she saw two small piles of dust, and the Shield of Triumph, bleached of all colour lying next to them.

"No," she breathed heavily as she slid to the ground next to it, even as a gust of wind blew through the warehouse, causing the dust to swirl. "Conner?" she asked, her voice hitching in her throat, even as she felt the comforting hand of her boyfriend on her shoulder. She looked up at him, and saw the tears forming in his eyes, and she knew that her own composure was about to crack. Part of her rebelled, couldn't believe that they had come this far, survived this long only to lose someone in the final moments, but then she Doctor O's face, and saw the truth in his eyes.

Bringing her fists slamming down onto the concrete of the warehouse, ignoring the pain of her injured arm, she let out a cry that spoke for all of them. "Conner!"

To be continued in the epilogue...


	29. Chapter 29

**Name: **Ascendancy  
**Chapter 29:** The Good Ranger  
**Disclaimer:** I own nothing, I am nothing. I am one with the gestalt. Sue him  
**Archives:** Sure, just let me know where  
**Summary:** After all is said and done, Tommy reflects.  
**Shoutout 1**: To Jeannine, for writing a fic that stirred in me the desire to write again myself.

* * *

The deep pain that is felt at the death of every friendly soul arises from the feeling that there is in every individual something which is inexpressible, peculiar to him alone, and is, therefore, absolutely and irretrievably lost.  
- Arthur Schopenhauer

* * *

It should have been raining. There should have been dark clouds overhead, and wind whipping through the trees as rain hammered down on the small plot of land behind the house of Tommy Oliver, or at least that's how he felt. It had been two weeks since the battle in the warehouse when Conner had finally put Mesogog's evil to rest, at the cost of his own life. Even though he had understood the young man's reasoning, the loss of not just one of his fellow Rangers and a student, but of a friend as well had hurt badly.

Life went on, however, and there were things that couldn't be ignored even with a cloud of grief hanging over them. They had taken the Zords to Mesogog's island intending to scour it clean only to find that almost all life on the Island was dying. Without Mesogog to keep it alive, nothing of his experiments could survive. The last of the Tyranno-drones was hunted down and destroyed, and Hayley who had insisted on coming as well had initiated the self-destruct on the underground base to make sure that nothing remained of his evil.

There had been Trent's message, left on a datacard and slipped into Ethan's uniform waistband when he stopped Mesogog's bomb. A message from a future that would never be, explaining what was happening and why. A message of love, and hope from someone who had watched virtually everyone he cared about die. They had all watched it, emotions running freely, even more so when the message spoke of each of the Rangers, including Conner.

And then they had to tell people what had happened. The conversation with Conner's parents had been emotionally devastating. There had been yelling and screaming and accusations of recklessness and neglect on his part from Conner's parents that Tommy had found almost impossible to refute, but to everyone's surprise it was Conner's twin brother Eric who had come to the Ranger's defense. Even has he shared his parent's grief Eric had read them the riot act about how Conner had done something amazing by helping to save the world, and that if he'd been given the same chance at the Wind Ninja Academy, then he would have grabbed it with both hands as well.

After that things had become somewhat easier with the McKnights, and Eric had proven to be far more accepting of what Conner had been than any of them had expected. He also seemingly lacked any bitterness at what had happened to his brother, even though he was clearly grieving. Instead he had spoken at some length with Tommy about how proud he was that Conner had been willing to take up the burden of being a Ranger. It had helped tremendously. With no body, and no way to explain the situation to the authorities, Conner's parents had agreed to let them erect a small gravestone on Tommy's property and hold a private ceremony to say goodbye to their son. That had taken place almost a week after the battle.

Today was the second such event. This one not containing family of blood and genetics, but the family of shared experiences as Rangers from all over the planet, and a few from further beyond who had been told of the loss of one of their own had made their way to Reefside to mourn Conner's loss. All of them had felt his desperate last-ditch request for help, and all had given some part of their power to him, and so they all felt a connection to the Red Ranger that transcended even the normal bond that all Rangers shared.

And so they had come, some singly, some as groups, until the couple of hotels that a small town like Reefside boasted were stuffed to the rafters with young men and women, most of whom had never been to the city before. They had only just finished their own goodbye's, and had returned to Tommy's house for the wake, while Tommy stayed in the garden looking at the silent marble marker.

He sat on his haunches, the trees shading him from the bright sun, lost in thought as he gazed at the simple gravestone that listed Conner's name alongside the symbol of the team and a few choice words.

Beloved Son. Friend. Ranger.

He didn't know how long he sat there, gazing at the stone before he became aware of someone softly coming up behind him. He ignored the presence until a well-manicured hand came down softly on his shoulder, and his companion joined him by sitting on her own haunches.

Tommy turned his head and looked at the blue-eyed blonde who was sitting next to him, a world of sympathy and understanding on her face, even as his own was damp from tears.

"They sent you to check on me?" he asked hoarsely.

"Actually, there's still an argument going on about whether they should leave you be for a bit longer or come out and see if you're okay. Your friend Kira is telling everyone to give you time, while Kimberly and Jason want to check up on you," Kat replied softly.

"So what about you?" he asked dully.

"I snuck out the front door while they were arguing and walked round the side of the house."

Tommy hung his head trying to hide his grin. It didn't feel right to be grinning at the moment, even if he did find it funny. Rather than saying anything, Kat just leaned her head on to his shoulder, and he marveled at her. She hadn't known Conner except through the letters they'd exchanged, but here she was offering her companionship without asking for anything in return. He shouldn't

They sat their for several minutes, enjoying the silence before Tommy cleared his throat. "Did I..." he began to ask before trailing off. Kat raised her head and looked at him, waiting for him to figure out what he wanted to say. It took him a few seconds to organise his thoughts. "I feel like I should feel more guilty," was what he finally settled on saying. "I'm his teacher and the senior Ranger, doesn't that mean I should have figured out some way to stop him, or to take his place?"

Kat thought about that for a few moments before responding, aware of how loaded the question was and how important it was to Tommy coming to terms with what happened that she get the answer right. "You said you were his teacher Tommy, but every teacher has to eventually let their students make their own decisions. You might not agree with that decision, but you do need to be able to respect that it was their right to make it.."

Tommy glanced at her, somehow absurdly glad that it had been Kat that had come out to talk to him. He didn't share as long a history with her as he did with Kimberly, nor the kind of close almost brotherly relationship he did with Jason, but he and Kat had a different understanding. They had the shared experience of having done real evil under the command of Rita, and it gave them a view of their own lives that few of the others could really understand. Kat had been the only one that he had really shared the pain and guilt of his Green Ranger days with, because she could understand what it was like to be controlled by Rita, and forced to do evil in her name.

And like many times before, he desperately needed someone who wouldn't coddle him, but would be sympathetic, and the soft-spoken Australian dancer was exactly that.

"Let me ask you this," she said after a moment. "Did he know what he was doing, did he choose this, or did it just happen?"

Tommy shook his head "No, we talked about that for a few minutes during the battle." He had given the other Rangers a detailed account of what had happened, including the fact that he had been taken to a mental realm inside Conner's head where he'd had a chance to say goodbye. "Conner made a conscious decision to save his friends, to save the world, and he accepted that he there would be a price to pay."

"Then I think you've got your answer there. It takes someone of singular courage to decide to put themselves in harms way to save the people he loves. Most people never have to make that choice, and of those that do, a surprisingly large amount probably wouldn't. That he could look at the situation and make that decision tells me that he was doing what was right."

He knew that she was right, but he couldn't stop the instinctive rejection of that idea. "But he died. He was my student, my responsibility and he died and I couldn't do anything about it," he protested.

"You aren't God Tommy," Kat said softly, putting an arm around his shoulder. "You can't always decide who lives and who dies. All you can do is make sure that you give your students the tools they need to be able to make the right choice, and to trust that when push comes to shove, they'll have the courage to make that choice."

Tommy heaved a big sigh. He didn't like what she was saying, but that didn't mean she was wrong. And he was proud of the choice Conner had made, even while desperately wishing he could change it. "That doesn't make it any easier you know," he finally said, a very slight edge of humor creeping into his voice.

"I know, and I wish I could make this easier," there was nothing but sincerity in her voice as she said it. "But by all accounts he was brave and loyal and forthright, and he stood squarely in the path of evil to defend others. He was a good man, and a good Ranger."

"The best.," Tommy said in agreement.

"Then remember that as well. Sometimes being a good person means sacrificing something for those you love. You helped make him a good person, and taught him how to be a Ranger." Her voice was full of well remembered compassion and caring. "That doesn't mean it's not going to hurt for a while, but it does mean the good memories will outlast the pain."

The two of them looked at each other and Kat saw both understanding and gratitude in his eyes. she pulled him close into a hug, awkward though it was as they were both sitting on their haunches.

"Thanks Kat," Tommy finally murmured.

She gave him a small smile, and they fell silent again, but some of the weight seemed to have lifted itself off Tommy's shoulders. Their companionable silence was broken as the back-door opened and Tommy sighed as he realised that he would have to rejoin the others now. He just wanted to say one last goodbye to Conner, and Kat seemed to understand that instinctively as she rose gracefully to her feet and squeezed his shoulder one more time before walking towards the house.

Tommy rose to his feet as well and looked down at the gravestone. "Goodbye Conner," he murmured softly. "You were everything a Ranger should be, and a good person too. I'm proud of you, and I'm going to miss you."

Turning away, he stepped out of the shade and into the California sun as Tommy Oliver went to rejoin his friends.

- finis -

Authors note: And so we come to the end of the story. Thank you everyone who has read this, everyone who has commented and offered opinions and suggestions. I'm sorry it took three years to get this story out, especially with the massive delays on the last couple of chapters. For what it's worth, it wasn't intentional. This particular chapter has been sitting, mostly complete on my hard drive for the best part of a year now, and a few minor tweaks notwithstanding, has remained the same.

I have an idea for a sequel, as well as one or two short companion pieces assuming that I can sort out my schedule well enough to write them consistently as I don't want to leave people in a lurch for two stories running. The sequel is somewhat darker than this story was, but I think it's a story worth telling. So I hope people will stick around for it.

Once again, thank you everyone who read and enjoyed this.


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